Twice A Thief
by The Red X
Summary: Wanted: Red X Missing: Arrowette As Red X's success as a thief continues to grow, old grudges brew. Hated by heroes and villians alike, he'll stay one step ahead of his enemy. If Kid Flash doesn't drive him insane, that is. Sequel to Once A Thief.
1. Back In Business

"I care not so much what I am to others as what I am to myself." -Michel De Montaigne

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Author's Note: Well, ladies and gentlemen, here it is… The long awaited sequel to _Once A Thief_, which my readers helped make a wonderful success by… Well by reading it and liking it. If you haven't read _Once A Thief_ yet, I suggest you do. I'm quite proud of it.

Now then, I listened carefully to what my readers wanted to see in this fic. Basically, you people asked for… "Eurotrip" Teen Titans style, with bonus footage of Haze being eaten by a giant monster tapeworm.

…

Yeah… That's not gonna happen.

But don't worry, I'm still giving you all what you asked for, and _way _more! And will anyone even notice the quotes I put at the top of each chapter this time?! I just don't pull those out of thin air; they're relevant to the chapter! It makes me want to cry myself to sleep at night or talk to Red X's pet rock.

Well… With that all said, I proudly present to you all…

_Twice A Thief_

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Steel City.

You wouldn't think there'd be much worth stealing in the cold and over crowded metropolis of Steel City. But there was plenty if you knew where to look. Companies might pay fortunes under the table for information on their competitor's plans. And there were always plenty of raw materials and goods worth of a petty thief's interest in the industrial city.

The city seemed to exist for the soul purpose of making money. There were little in the ways of museums or amusement parks or anything of such. Only a few malls and movie theaters, as well as multiple scattered taverns and pubs, provided amusement for the working city. It was no small wonder that the H.I.V.E. had made such a strong foothold in the money-driven city.

Business and factories consumed nearly all-available land, which was the central reason why the Titans East built their tower on the underside of a cliff. There had simply been no land available, so they made land of their own at the foot of the cliff. The Titans East didn't have the luxury of negotiating away a city-owned island in the middle of the bay to build their anti-crime fortress, as the original Teen Titans had been able to do in Jump City.

Which all suited Red X just fine.

Red X, the thieving prodigy from Jump City, continued to repel down the side of the cliff, just above Titans East Tower. A disposable cable had been threaded through the motor and reel of a spare grapnel gun and anchored to a fire hydrant at the top of the cliff. He used said cable and spare gun to leisurely repel down the cliff and towards East Tower.

Jump City had finally become to hot for even him to work in on a regular basis; the Teen Titans and the police were getting smart and there wasn't much worth stealing these days. And Red X was constantly tantalized at the thoughts of other treasures outside of Jump City that were just waiting for him to wrap his sticky fingers around. Unfortunately, it was a constant hassle to travel too far out of Jump City and still bring his zynothium-powered suit with him, preventing the thief from expanding his territory beyond Jump City.

That's why he went through all the trouble of going all the way to Steel City.

The Titans East had a solution to his problem. And he intended to help himself to it.

"Well, that's one small step for man…", he said as he gingerly touched his toes to the rooftop of East Tower. He waited for any reaction from the Tower's security system, but none came and he smirked smugly under his mask. "And one giant leap for me." He pushed off and bounded away from the rocky wall, and landed completely and silently on the Tower's roof.

He severed the cable and tucked away his spare grapnel gun, and then he withdrew his own version of the Titan's communicator.

It was similar to the Titan's version, except his was grey and had a red "X" slashed on the cover instead of a prominent "T". It had been built from one of Robin's own communicators, which X had managed to snatch a while back. The communicator allowed the super-thief limited access to the original Titans Tower, and he gambled it would allow him access to the East Tower as well.

The fact that retractable and automated turrets hadn't blasted him into a hot and steaming pile of molecular paste proved his gamble correct.

After checking his time and other statistics with the multi-function X-communicator, he stored it away in his belt and made his way to the rooftop entrance to the Tower.

-X-

30 minuets later.

Mas y Menos inhaled the scents of dinner deeply through their noses and sighed in pleasure. "Ah… ¡Será delicioso!", they announced in unison.

The supersonic twins had made dinner that night and set it down on the large table that had a "T" painted on it. The rest of the Titans East leaned in close to examine the strange Guatemalan dish.

"Uh… Aqualad! I know you just can't wait to sink your teeth into it first!", Bumblebee said, setting up a trap for Aqualad to hopefully test the alien dish.

"What?!", Aqualad said with a slight grimace and a brake of sweat.

"¡Maravilloso!", Mas exclaimed as he gathered up a giant spoon-full of the dish and slopped it onto Aqualad's plate. "Inténtelo. ¡Antes de las habas endurezca!", Menos said.

Speedy smiled with a devilish smirk. "Go on… Give it a shot.", he taunted.

Aqualad, the aquatic boy scout, gulped and slowly picked up a spoon and poked at the food on his plate. "Well… Here goes…" He scooped up some in his spoon and slowly raised it to his mouth like a man who was about to eat tiny shards of aluminum.

"Él estará contento cuando él prueba la sorpresa especial.", Menos quickly muttered to his brother.

"¿Utilizamos escarabajos frescos?", Mas replied.

"No. Utilicé la chinche hedionda en lugar de otro. ¿Usted lo piensa notará?", Menos answered.

Aqualad slowly placed the spoon near his mouth and prepared to take a bite…

Suddenly the lights went out, leaving the Titans in pitch-black darkness. Then a warning alarm sounded once, and only once, and emergency lights bathed the room in red light.

"Oh thank you it's an emergency!", Aqualad muttered as he set the spoon back down on his plate.

"Smells good. What's for dinner?", Red X said.

Each of the Titans East turned to the large display screen on the wall. Red X's masked face was plastered on the screen in a larger-then-life way.

"Who are you?", Bumblebee demanded as she and the rest of the Titans East rose from their seats.

"Haven't heard of me? I'm crushed.", Red X said over the display's screen and surround sound, and mimicked sorrow in his voice. "The name's Red X, professional thief for hire. I figured I'd introduce myself to the newest set of the Tweeb Titans now and save us all the embarrassing hassle of name cards."

"You're a thief?", Speedy asked.

"The best around. Just ask Robin, I'm sure he'll get a kick out of it.", Red X answered.

"¡Ningún ladrón nos derrotará!, Mas exclaimed with a wave of his stubby fist. "¡Le encontraremos y le pondremos en la cárcel, hombre enmascarado!", Menos affirmed.

Red X raised his eyebrow considerably on the large screen. "Who are the wonder twins over there?" Red X knew well who they were, but feinted ignorance for amusement's sake.

"That's Mas and Menos.", Bumblebee exclaimed with a smirk. "Fastest set of twins on any hemisphere.", she said with pride, hoping it might intimidate the strange new thief.

"Mas and Menos?", Red X repeated. "Man, you guys got more aliens then the original Titans!"

Mas y Menos seemed to fume at this comment. 

Speedy, on the other hand, suddenly burst out laughing and held his side. After his short laughter subsided, he pointed with his thumb at Red X on the screen and said, "This bad guy, I like."

"I aim to please.", Red X said sarcastically.

"Well whoever or whatever you are…", Aqualad began. "You made a serious mistake by coming here."

"Yeah, you're right.", X said. "I didn't bring any tartar sauce."

Then the screen went blank and any trace of Red X disappeared.

"Titans! He's gotta be in the Tower to have hacked into that screen. Split up and find him!", Bumblebee called out.

Aqualad was the first to take off, and the strait-laced submersible Titan darted off to the railing of the raised platform the table was at. He bounded off the railing and dived off and towards one of his twin pools of water at the bottom.

The East Tower included several water-accessible entrances and exists to accommodate Aqualad, and he expected to swim through the pipelines and into the lower levels of the Tower.

But instead he dived head first into a giant pool of… Jell-O.

Aqualad was suspended in the green gelatin momentarily. He summoned all the strength needed to swim through water at 80 knots and used his toned muscles to propel himself through the sweet gelatin quickly. His head popped out, splashing pieces and chunks of Jell-O away.

"HEY! A little help here!", he said as he tried in vein to maneuver.

Bumblebee quickly flew from the top of the room and towards Aqualad. "What happened?!", she asked as she grabbed his hand and tried to pull him out of the quick-sand-like desert.

Speedy busted though a door that led to the poolside level of the main room and rushed to the poolside. "What the…?", he said slowly. "What is all this crud?", he skidded to a stop by the pool and poked the gelatinous substance with his foot.

"It tastes like…" Aqualad, kneeling next to the pool after Bumblebee had set him down, licked and smacked his lips together to taste any residue on his lips. "…Jell-O."

Speedy skipped a beat, and then began to laugh hysterically. He doubled over in laughter and slapped his knee repeatedly.

Aqualad was less then amused. "Not funny…"

"Yes, it is!", Speedy said as he stood erect again. "We finally get a villain with a good sense of humor! Ha ha!"

"Alright, quit goofing around.", Bumblebee ordered. "That funny bad guy is still in the Tower!", she said while helping Aqualad to his feet.

Aqualad got up and followed Bumblebee as they walked past Speedy, who was still chuckling hardily.

"Jell-O… He disabled your powers by turning all the water in the Tower to Jell-O… Ha ha ha…!" He turned around to walk with them, but then stepped and slid on a large chuck of gelatin. He then slid backwards and fell strait into the pool.

Aqualad and Bumblebee turned around to see what had happened, and spotted the scarlet archer face up at the bottom of a Speedy-shaped hole in the Jell-O.

This time Aqualad laughed.

Speedy was so unamused and flustered to the point he thought a vein might pop out of his forehead. "Not funny…"

"¡X Rojo! ¡Lo encontramos!", Mas said as he and his twin sped into the room while holding hands. "¡En el 'hanger"!", Menos said.

"What'd they say?", Speedy asked as Aqualad and Bumblebee each pulled one of his arms and helped him out of the gelatinous death trap.

"I think they said he's in the hanger.", Bumblebee replied.

"What are waiting for?", Aqualad said, more of a statement then a question.

"¡Venido! ¡Síganos!", the twins said and zipped off in the direction. They stopped at the large blast doors to the hanger bay where the TE-Ship was being constructed, and waited for their friends.

The remaining three Titans soon arrived, two of them sticky and smelling like sugary desert.

"En aquí.", Menos said, pointing to the door.

"Hey, I think he's inside.", Bumblebee said, ignoring Menos unintentionally.

Menos fumed momentarily.

"Open it.", Speedy said.

"I can't." Bumblebee continually typed away at the keypad next to the door. "I think he's locked it from the inside.", she said with a few more experimental pokes to the buttons.

"Do you hear something…?", Aqualad said as he stared off into space.

Speedy perked up momentarily. "Sounds like… Whistling. 'I've been working on the railroad'…?"

Suddenly stopped and was replaced by a low but powerful hum. The hum grew louder and the windows that made up one of the corridor's walls began to gently rattle.

"What… Is… THAT!?!?!", Bumblebee demanded.

But the sound continued.

Then Bumblebee's communicator started to ring. She quickly took it out, opened it, and spat out, "What?"

Red X's face was displayed on the communicator's screen. "Hey, Buzzy. Enjoying the concert?", he said, referring to the hum.

"Red X?!", Bumblebee said, blinking in disbelief.

Speedy grabbed the communicator and stepped behind Bumblebee as to be seen from Red X's end of the conversation. "What's going in there?", he asked firmly.

"I guess you could call it your initiation." He spoke in such a way that the thick smirk could definitely be heard in his voice despite the hum. "Every team of Titans has to have something stolen from them by me sooner or later."

"What are you doing in there?!", Bumblebee repeated, fighting off a certain amount of panic.

"Hazing you!", Red X shouted with enthusiasm. Then he cut the line and the transmission went dead.

"Well that can't be good.", Speedy said unamused.

_CRASH!!!_

Suddenly, something crashed through the windows on the other side of the hanger's blast doors, sending shards of tempered glass flying all around.

It was the back end of the Titans East's version of the T-Ship, painted blue and piloted by Red X.

Bumblebee's eyes went wide, one twitching wildly, and her mouth went tight and crooked. Speedy grimaced and raised one eyebrow higher then his widened eyes. Aqualad's jaw had dropped to 20,000 leagues under the sea. Mas y Menos just stood dumbfounded while holding hands.

Shards of glass fell in slow motion around the aircraft as the Titans East stared in disbelief.

Red X made the craft to hover in midair for a moment. Then he reached to the control panel and then Bumblebee's communicator rang again.

She flicked it open without taking her twitching eyes away from Red X.

"Better Luck Next Time… And thanks for the sweet ride.", Red X said over the communicator from inside the ship. Then he cut that transmission.

He slammed his hand onto the craft's throttle, and with a blast from the ship's mighty twin miniature engines, Red X and the craft were off in a flash.

Inside the craft's cockpit, Red X felt the effects of the ships raw power and acceleration. "Oh, baby… Why didn't I get me one of these things sooner?!" He accelerated as he rose above the clouds and far out of sight. "Yeah!"

Back at East Tower…

"Did…", Aqualad began.

Him and the rest of the Titans east were all dumbfounded beyond comparison and still had the comically shocked looks on their faces.

"Did he just-"

He was suddenly cut off when Bumblebee covered his mouth with her hand without taking her hilariously twitching face away from the sky. "No. No, that didn't just happen."

"Then… What just happened to part of our ship…?", Speedy asked slowly.

"Mas and Menos broke it.", she said.

The three still looked hilariously dumbfounded with big eyes.

"QUE?!", the twins said.

-X-

Hours later.

Red X was quite content in the seat of his newest toy. He knew the T-Ship would be high performance, but he was still pleasantly surprised at how quickly the craft reach sub-orbital heights and how quickly he traveled far above the Earth below. He checked his instruments and his navigational equipment, finding he was just above Central City…

Below, in Central City…

_CRASH!_

The police car crashed into the asphalt with a loud bang and the screech of crunching metal, as its frame was damaged and grinded against the ground.

Across the street, a shinning mongrel stood nearly six and a half feet tall. His entire body was made of some sort of shinning metal, and it sparkled bright and reflective silver in the bright day. Plates and smaller miscellaneous bits of metal comprised his living armor, even his long unkempt hair and beard had become like metal wire.

The utterly huge metallic creature had tried to rob a bank the blunt way, by running strait through the wall and ripping off the vault door with nothing but sheer brute force. And as soon as he stepped outside the hole he had made as a door, he had found company.

And now, the giant walking shop-class reject snarled at the perimeter of police that had gathered.

"Sir! Please calm down!", the police negotiator said over his mega-phone.

"I got a name…", the snarling metal beast said. "But you'll call me Girder anyway. Got it?" He spoke with a deep voice with a small hint of a screech, almost as if metal had covered his vocal cords as well. But despite that, he still retained the basic voice of any uneducated day laborer.

"Girder? Okay, Girder, there's no need for any more violence.", said the negotiator. "I know you must be panicked and upset, but we just want to talk things out- AGH!" The negotiator ducked to avoid a heavy leather chair that Girder had thrown from inside the bank.

Girder chuckled to himself. "Talk? I don't wanna talk! I want some of this dough inside, and if you piggies wanna take it outside…" Girder grabbed a large mangled piece of concrete and rebar that had once been part of the banks wall. "Fine by me!" Girder hurled the huge slab of concrete and rebar at the nearest police officer.

Detective Jared Morillo was unlucky enough to be said police officer. He wore a cheap but good-looking suit, and sweat covered his dark and almost chocolate colored skin. He was crotched behind a police car and stared wide-eyed and helpless, like a dear caught in an SUV's headlights, as the slab tumbled end over end strait toward him.

Suddenly a blur past over him and he disappeared into it just as the slab crashed into the spot he once inhabited. The crumbling slab smashed the into a car and lifted its back tires off the ground when it slammed into the hood.

Twenty feet away, Kid Flash stood next too twin skid marks from his feet. Detective Jarrod Morillo was oddly held under one of the supersonic teen's arms.

"Kid Flash!", Jarrod said as Kid Flash released him.

"Sorry, I'm late!", Kid Flash said. "I was helping little Timmy take his first steps. He's such a cute kid and his mom's been working so hard down at the corner market, I couldn't help but give them a hand and I wasn't watching the TV so I didn't see the newsflash-"

"Shut up, and stop him already!", Jarrod barked off as he pointed at Girder with tight hands and hunched shoulders.

"Oh, right!" Kid Flash zipped off between the lines of police officers and stood just in front of Girder.

Girder towered over him and snarled.

"Gah!", Kid Flash was taken back by the giant pile of living metal, he hadn't gotten a chance to get a good look at the criminal when he rushed to the scene. "Wow. Did someone prescribe the wrong anti-itch cream for your or something?"

"RAWR!" Girder swung his fist down and punched the cement where Kid Flash once stood about half a second ago.

"Okay, so I guess you're not willing to just sit down and talk?", Kid Flash asked from behind Girder.

Girder quickly swung his heavy head around, wiry metal hair whipping. "Talk's cheap!" Girder swung his massive arm but Kid Flash back stepped away in about 8 milliseconds.

"Oh, I get it. You're a tough guy, aren't you?", Kid Flash asked tauntingly.

"Ha! Look at me, boy! I'm made of metal!" Girder banged his fist against the huge pectoral plates on his chest. The result was a thunderous clang that resonated in Kid Flash's ears.

Kid Flash winced slightly at the loud clang. "Oh yeah, tough guy?" He took another long step back and used the tip of his boot to draw a line in the dust and debris that was scattered by Girder's destruction. "I bet you're not tough enough to cross that line!"

"You little punk!" Girder angrily stepped over in a single bound and stomped his heavy feet, covered by the largest work boots commercially available, into the pavement. "Ha!"

"Uh huh…" Kid Flash zipped far away, past the police line, and down the street. He quickly stabbed his toe into the mulch and dirt around the roots a tree that had been planted in a square pit of dirt in the sidewalk. He kicked his toe and spread a thin line of dirt and mulch on the road. "I bet you're not manly enough to cross this line over here!", he yelled out while cupping his hands over his mouth.

Girder jumped high into the air and soared over all the police cars. He created two small creators in the asphalt as his feet landed. Then he jumped again and landed with a ground-rattling shake on the other side of the line and right behind Kid Flash.

He smiled venomously with delight as he stared below at Kid Flash who seemed so tiny compared to him.

"Ah! Well, you sure ate your Wheaties today. But I bet you're still not manly enough to cross…" Kid Flash darted off down the street and quickly drew a line in a grassy medium between road lanes. "THIS LINE!", he yelled.

Girder ran and jumped and landed on the other side of the line just as Kid Flash darted off and drew another line with his foot. Girder ran and crossed that one too.

And Kid Flash ran and drew another line.

And Girder crossed it.

Kid Flash ran and drew another line.

Girder crossed it.

Another line.

Another line.

Another line.

It went on like that for nearly twenty miles as Kid Flash taunted and led away the less loveable, and less intelligent, version of the Iron Giant.

They had gone a long distance to travel on foot for most. But to a man with the superhuman strength to leap the length of a Disney Cruise Ship… And to a boy who ran warm-up laps around the city and marathons around the New England States… It was like a simple stroll from to the bathroom from one's living room couch.

"How about this line?", Kid Flash said as he drew a line in the soft soil and ran off again just as Girder stomped down over the line.

As Kid Flash stopped and drew another line, he took a few milliseconds to look around and discover he was in a junkyard that was mostly inhabited by rusted cars. A large dirty lake was on the other side of the junkyard and an electromagnetic crane towered next to a pile of dirt and rust covered cars.

He ran off again just as Girder landed on the other side of the newest line.

"Quit playing around!", Girder yelled. "When I get my hands on you, you'll wish you were never born! You'll hurt so bad you're grandma will feel it!"

"Uh huh…" Kid Flash drew a line in the soft earth of the junkyard as he skidded to a stop. "That's assuming you can catch me first, big guy. And unfortunately for you…" He pointed to the newest line. "I'm always just a one messily line away. Bet ya can't even get over here in one jump."

"You miserable little punk! I'll make you eat those words!" Girder squatted down and then launched himself into the air, falling strait towards Kid Flash while imitating a move he saw in a wrestling match.

Kid Flash didn't wait for him to almost come close. As soon as Girder was in the air, his fate was sealed. Kid Flash immediately darted off inside the cabin of the electromagnetic crane, took two blinks of an average eye to read over the control console, and pulled a lever. The diesel engines, left to idle during the union lunch break, obeyed Kid Flash's command as fast as it could.

Girder landed in the empty spot next to the line where Kid Flash once was. And he lifted his head up and was about to make a lewd remark when he felt a strange sensation. A strange tingle as everything in his body began to be drawn upwards. He looked up just as the giant magnet that the crane held fell right on him.

"Umph!" The surprised Girder fell under the weight of the magnet. His body, even his wiry metal hair, clung to the magnet's dirty surface and wasn't moving. He tried his mightiest to move and struggle, but the magnet seemed to zap the strength right out of his galvanized muscles.

The magnet suddenly began to rise again and it took Girder with it. Higher and higher it rose as the crane pulled the magnet into the air by it's thick chain.

"AGH! YOU! YOU LITTLE MAGET! I SWEAR I'LL CRUSH YOU AND WRING YOUR LITTLE NECK WHEN I GET MY HANDS ON YOU!", Girder yelled as he rose higher and higher.

Kid Flash pulled another lever and the magnet stopped its slow rise high above the junkyard dirt. Then he zipped out of the cabin and stood directly under the magnet. "Like I said, big guy… You'll have to get your hands on me first. And from up there… You better have pretty long arms."

Girder gritted his metal teeth and growled in animalistic frustration.

"Hey, don't worry, cuddles. I'm sure the nice policemen you threw cars at will get ya some nice shiny bracelets. Hey! They'll match you and bring out the color in your eyes." He grinned smugly as he rubbed verbal dirt in Girder's shiny face. "Later!"

And then Kid Flash was gone in a flash, leaving behind only a red and yellow blur that soon too disappeared.

"Agh! You little- Get back here so I can rip your face off!", Girder yelled. "I swear, this ain't over, kid! I'm gonna come back for you and when I do you're regret your parents ever meeting! You hear me! THIS AIN'T OVER!", Girder yelled to nobody in particular as police sirens drew closer.

-X-

Haze turned another page.

He wasn't wearing his purple costume, but rather felt comfortable in petty civilian attire for now. Of course, he still put on the suit randomly to simply go about his business in his room, or to look into his mirror and have an ego-trip.

He perched at the foot of his bed like a vulture as he read Sun-Tzu's _The Art Of War_ for the second time. Near by on the floor was a pile of other books that he had read, all revolved around war, crime, or justice. His favorite of the books was the English translation of _Mein Kampf_.

If Haze was truly a vulture, then the discarded pile of books was surely the discarded carcasses of his supper after he had picked their spines clean of any useable nutrition or knowledge.

He was learning.

After he was defeated and humiliated by Red X, he had found that with concentration he was able to project nightmarish fantasies and sick dreams directly into the mind of his apparent sister, Lilith Clay. Ever since then, he had cultivated and trained this new ability by giving poor Lilith nightmares on an almost nightly basis. He had pushed the benevolent girl to go to therapy in an attempt to dissect and stop the barrage of nightmares, and that's when Haze decided that maybe he should stop using her as a constant test subject, lest the situation grew beyond his control. But by then, he had become good enough to project the horrible delusions into the minds of complete strangers, albeit with much more effort.

Whatever his new power, he couldn't depend entirely on it to bring about his revenge on the Teen Titans, perhaps Arrowette, and especially Red X. So he had begun researching the best and worst of crime and all the plans that accompanied megalomania. He even occasionally read books on crime and punishment to understand how his potential enemies might thing.

He heard a noise far away through his bedroom window, and turned his attention away from Sun-Tzu's teachings to spy out the window.

Outside, a humble mailman had inserted postals and parcels into the Jupiter Home's mailbox. Then he turned around and began to walk back to his pathetic little mail truck.

Haze narrowed his bright blue eyes and stared viciously at the man. He allowed himself to fantasize about shoving the man feet-first into a giant juicer. As the morbid thoughts danced inside his head like sugarplums, he closed his eyes and concentrated on sending the thought to the mailman.

The mailman was about to step into his truck.

Haze concentrated.

And then, suddenly the mailman's eyes opened wide as the horrible thoughts reached his conscious mind. He froze for a moment, shocked at how his thoughts had suddenly drifted from the last episode of his favorite reality show to visions of himself being pushed and processed in a giant juicer. He looked around in a slightly panicked way, then hopped into his truck and sped off.

Haze smiled to himself.

He picked up a ballpoint pen that had been lying around and began clicking it again and again, then twirled it among his fingers ever ten clicks. It was a compulsion he was developing without realizing it.

Leaving one hand to go about its obsessive compulsion, Haze held _The Art Of War_ with the other hand and continued reading the book.

"Be extremely subtle, even to the point of formlessness. Be extremely mysterious, even to the point of soundlessness. Thereby you can be the director of the opponent's fate.", Sun-Tzu had written in his book.

"Hmm…" Haze had read that lesson before, but this time it carried a certain resonance he hadn't noticed before. He set the book down and stared off into space at nothing in particular.

He mused.

Then, he smiled.

Then, he plotted.

-X-

Red X was hurtling closer to the East Coast, having made the cross-country trip in the Titan's East ship in record time. He was quiet pleased. He could steal things all over the world, and then fence them on the other side.

Designed for interplanetary long distance space travel if needed, thanks to Starfire's teachings and Cyborg's circuits, the ship was very fuel independent. Of course, that didn't mean X couldn't shove in a Zynothium afterburning or something just for that little extra kick.

Red X's communicator rang.

It surprised him at first. Who would call him now? Who _could_ call him?

He opened the communicator and was only half surprised.

"I heard you got a new ride.", Arrowette said over the device. Her voice was smooth and smug, as if she was trying to match egos with Red X and not seem like such an incompetent hero. But it was still the sweet, young, and familiar voice that Red X had come to hear from one a week if he was lucky.

"News travels that quickly these days?", Red X said.

"No, I just know Speedy pretty well. Said you busted in and took part of their ship, the only part that was built so far." Then she lost her smug tone and replaced with a curious one. "He also couldn't stop chuckling over something about Jell-O…"

Red X laughed to himself as he switched the craft over to autopilot. "For once, a superhero with a sense of humor. He's like Robin, but without the Bird-A-Rang crammed up his-"

"X!", Arrowette said before the thief could purposely let his tongue slip. She signed over the communicator, obviously loosing the battle of the egos. "Don't suppose there's any way I could convince you to turn around and give it back?"

"You kidding?" That's when he noticed the craft's on board computer had a web browser. "Next to the suit itself, this could be one of the best things I've ever stolen." With one hand he went to work on the computer.

"X…", Arrowette whined. "You're not making my job easy, you know."

"And you're not making mine a walk in the park either.", Red X replied with a hint of sharpness. Then something deep inside him remembered whom he was talking to. "Speaking of parks… You ever catch that Quicksand Mugger?"

"The dude who got the big idea to mug people in the city park then use some kind of instant adhesive on the ground to make his escape? Yeah, I got him.", Arrowette said mockingly about the stupid criminal. "Froze the quicksand with a Freeze-Arrow and then pummeled him with Boxing Glove-Arrows. Took me forever to stake out the park and catch him though." She was proud to boost of some accomplishment to the thief.

"Good for you, girl.", Red X said, not sure if he should encourage a hero. "Who was the loser behind the putty?"

"Some guy who stole the adhesive recipe from a company. I think he was a janitor or something."

"Should'a just sold off the recipe to the highest bidder.", Red X said.

"Yeah, well criminals can be dumb like that.", Arrowette sarcastically teased.

Red X crooked an eyebrow up high. Just as he did, the computer screen read "THANK YOU. YOUR ORDER WILL BE DELIEVERED IN LESS THEN 10 MINUETS."

"You're calling criminals dumb? Girl, I've seen your first costume.", Red X replied.

Arrowette audibly whined over the communicator. "Where did you find pictures of that…? I thought I everyone forgot about that!"

Red X chuckled. "I wouldn't blame them if they tried to. It's pretty bad."

"Hey! That costume was my mom's idea, not mine!"

Red X laughed.

"Ow… My fragile ego.", she said.

"Don't sweat it.", he said. "I've scene worse." He paused. "Speaking of which, I got to make another call. Later, blondy."

"Yeah yeah…", she said sarcastically. "Later, bone head.", she referred to the skull on Red X's mask. It was a nickname it took her months to finally figure out and she enjoyed using it.

Red X cut off the communication signal with her just as Jump City became visible beyond the horizon.

He pressed the touch screen of his communicator a few times.

Then after a moment, Spike's image appeared. The blue mechanic, who once called Atlas a champion, had an extra smear of grease on his cheek and a content smile. "Red X!", he said.

"Yo, Spike. You got that landing pad ready for me?"

"Yeah, it's all set for you.", Spike said like an employee honestly happy to serve a well paying customer. "But I gotta tell you, vehicles aren't my specialty."

"Let Fixit worry about the tech. You just put that artistic flare on it.", Red X said.

Red X had grown tired of using Gizmo to provide him with trustworthy tech and gear. Gizmo had always whined and was hardly ever on time with regular shipments of shuriken and other devices.

That's when Red X heard that Fixit and Spike, a cyborg looking to enjoy life and a brilliant mechanic looking for some respect, had teamed up. They made an excellent team. Fixit could create the most spectacularly performing machine and Spike was able to give it that personal, human, touch and make it look like a champion's machine. And on top of that, Fixit's little drone robots were _always_ on time with X's regular shipments of supplies and toys.

Ah, the smell of capitalism, at work. Even in the black market.

Fixit and Spike had little qualms about selling their services to either side of the law, on the condition that they weren't building or maintaining any sort of doomsday device. Red X had similar scruples about his clients. Those scruples, combined with timely payments and how well Red X and Spike got along, quickly made Red X a favorite customer.

Spike was easy to get along with for Red X. Spike admired winners, and Red X rarely lost to either side of the war for Truth, Justice, and Pizza. Spike was eager to earn respect, so Red X simply was less sarcastic to him and treated him decently. That's how Red X won such fine treatment from a much better vendor of high-tech gear then Gizmo was.

Red X still employed Gizmo for big-ticket items that were out of Fixit's league, but the underground duo of Fixit and Spike had well become Red X's favorite suppliers and fixers.

"You got it, Champ.", Spike said over the communicator. "We'll be waiting for you.", Spike said in this obviously thick New York accent.

"Glad to hear. X out.", Red X said casually as he disconnected the conversation.

Red X put away his communicator and took the craft off autopilot. He contently piloted the ship closer to one of Jump City's junkyards, where Fixit and Spike had set up shop underground.

He even found himself humming a tone contently to himself as he flew the high-performance craft. He mused on the irony that the ship had been built to help fight crime, not to help commit heists.

Then his communicator rang out again. Half knowing who it was, Red X picked it up and opened it. "Hello?", he asked sweetly.

"X!!! YOU ORDERED TWENTY PIZZAS TO MY DOORSTEP?!", Arrowette screamed.

Red X threw his head back and laughed hysterically.

-X-

Six months later.

"Caravaggio's legendary _Nativity with San Lorenzo and San Francesco_.", Hamilton J. Starvro said of the painting on display in his gallery.

Hamilton J. Starvro was an obviously sophisticated man with tanned skin and he spoke with such pompous as to make more theatrical villains seem like meek nuns. He had a squared chin and a carefully trimmed mustache that testified to the pinnacle of culture and worthiness he had reached.

Of course, he wasn't Hamilton J. Starvro right now. When he did other business he donned a purple suit and tux, a hood, and a thin domino mask. The wardrobe was purple, or various shades of it. "Because everyone in costumed business has to dress like such.", he had said of it once. With mask firmly in place, he became a little known but very professional dealer in stolen artwork.

In real life, he was the owner of a fine art museum. But the excitement and intrigue of art and the theft of it had entrapped him. Rather then do the grimy job of stealing the precious art himself, he became quite content at buying the stolen art from thieves and specialized in ransoming the art back to their places of origin.

"This particularly valuable painting was one of the Italian artist's greatest works. It has not been scene in the public eye since it's daring theft in 1969. Since then it has been placed from one owner to the other on an intrepid journey of it's own. You, my good sir, are quite fortunate that it has fallen into my capable hands. Few people have gazed upon it's brilliance since it's theft, and many fear it will never be scene again…", Hamilton said. Then he spun around to face his guest. "And it can be _yours_ for the pittance of twenty million!", he said like a car salesman.

"I don't know…", the sleazy, but rich, man said. He was overweight, and wore more gaudy jewelry then a professional rapper. But at least his jewelry was real. "What's with the kid with wings? And why's everyone look depressed?", he spoke with a New Jersey accent.

"It was painted in roughly the 16th century. Everyone painted like that back then."

"Mmm… I don't like all those Earthy tones. You got anything with more blues or greens?"

Hamilton strained to hold up his unamused facial expression. "I'll see if I have a Picasso or two… Or maybe you'd prefer some _finger paints_?"

"Sir?", Hamilton's butler announced his presence as he stepped into the gallery with all the discipline and grace of a gentlemen's gentlemen. "Your need in the south conference room, Sir. It's… Important."

Hamilton nodded at the butler and addressed his guest. "You'll have to excuse me for a moment. Please, look around and tell me if anything arouses your interest." With that, Hamilton happily turned around and stormed away from the man who knew next to nothing about art.

Hamilton's butler quickly fetched a small lead case and handed it to Hamilton as they walked. "Our guest's payment, Sir. I've been assured he's completed his task as always."

"Thank you.", Hamilton took the case and opened the heavy double doors of his conference room.

The conference room was bathed with white marble walls and a distinct absence of the Earthy colors Hamilton's other guest distasted.

"Yo." Red X sat at the end of the conference table, leaning back in the plush leather seat with his feet on the table. In one hand he flipped and balanced an artist's painting tube, in an attempt to chase away boredom that he made no effort to conceal.

"Ah… Red X.", Hamilton entered the conference room but did not take a seat. "I trust you have the final piece in the collection I have been seeking?"

"And I trust you have your end of the bargain?"

Hamilton set the heavy case on the smooth conference table and slid it quickly down the table's length.

At the other end, Red X quickly halted the sliding case with a single finger on it's top. Red X set his feet on the ground and stood from the chair. "Mind if I have a good look first?"

"I'd be insulted if you hadn't, Mr. X."

Red X opened the case and a resonating green glow emerged from inside. He withdrew a device from his belt and waved it over the hard glowing contents of he case. After a few beeps and readings from the small device, Red X closed the case and put away the device.

"Alright, looks like the real deal." He offered out his hand with the painting tube extended. "Here's your painting."

Hamilton contently strode over to Red X and took the painting tube from him. Then he withdrew and very carefully examined the painting within. "Magnificent. Thank you, Red X. You've once again proven yourself to be a dependable, although crude and brash, business man."

"Yeah, same to you, pal.", he mentioned with a hint of sarcasm. "Oh, and thanks for referring me to Anna. That girl can really paint. Thanks to her, no one will know that thing's missing for a while.", Red X pointed to the painting Hamilton examined. "Where'd you find that sweetie anyway?"

"An old associate of mine, a Mr. Knutzhorn, introduced us.", Hamilton said as he carefully rolled up his newest masterpiece and inserted it back into the tube. "It's not my business to pry, Red X, but I must ask. Why would you want a Carcinogenic Xenomineral such as that as payment? I was told your wardrobe was powered by less conventional materials, like Zynothium."

"Just in case." Red X shut the case. "I ran into SuperBoy once. Next time I see that Boy Scout, I'd like the odds to be a bit fairer."

"Ah.", Hamilton said in genuine admiration, but not much of it. "It does my heart good to see such wise planning in a youth."

"Yeah? And it does my heart good to keep breathing without a tube.", Red X said as he began to stroll away. He liked Hamilton's money, but disliked Hamilton as a person. With his reward, the case, clutched in his hand, he was eager to leave. "Later, fancy pants."

"Wait, just a moment. There's something else.", Hamilton held out a hand to stop the thief from passing by him.

Red X stopped and crooked an eyebrow in question.

"There's someone who's asked me to refer himself to you, Red X."

"Oh yeah? Who?"

"A Mr. Ross Malverk. He's a, to put it frankly, crime lord in Central City who would fancy himself taking over The Network one day."

"I'm not a mafia goon.", Red X said sternly.

"Of course, you're not. You see, soon a very special gem is going to be on display in Central City, and Ross Malverk is practically salivating at the thought of getting his hands on it. He'd like to meet with you, to see if you might be able to steal it for him."

"Another job, huh?", Red X said eagerly. He didn't like Hamilton's pompous and over-cultured attitude, and liked even less that he somehow assumed Red X to be similar to himself. It had been like a breath of fresh air to hear about a new client in a new city. "What's the score?"

Hamilton smiled knowingly. "_The Heart of Eternity_ _Diamond_."

Red X's eyes widened in surprise, but only momentarily. Soon they lowered and narrowed as a deep, satisfied smirk formed under his mask.

"Tell him, it'll cost him.", Red X said.

………………………………………………………………………………...

Author's Note: Caravaggio's _Nativity with San Lorenzo and San Francesco_ is a real painting that really was stolen in 1969 from a museum in Italy. Its value is currently estimated to be $20 million.

If you have any information regarding the whereabouts of the _Nativity with San Lorenzo and San Francesco_, contact me and we'll split the reward!

The _Heart Of Eternity Diamond_ is also a real diamond. Thieves with a bulldozer and a speedboat tried to steal it and other diamonds in its collection on November 7th, 2000, but failed.

Please review! So I can feel good about myself.

………………………………………………………………………………...

Oh, and did you enjoy my butchery of the Spanglish language? For those of you who are wondering what Mas and Menos said but can't figure it out for the life of you, here's what they were _supposed_ to have said, translated and paraphrased in English.

The twins served the dinner, which they said would be delicious. Menos says to eat it before the beans harden.

When Aqualad was about to eat it, Menos quickly muttered, "Wait till he tastes the special surprise!"

Mas asks if they used fresh beetles.

Menos says, "No. I used fresh stinkbug. Think he'll notice?"

When Red X appeared on the screen, they vowed they would not be defeated and that they would bring the masked man to jail.

And a few other little things I think you roughly understood.


	2. Set Up

"It is honourable to be accused by those who deserved to be accused." -Latin Proverb

………………………………………………………………………………...

Suzanne "Cissie" King-Jones, or Arrowette, stepped off the airplane and beheld the extensive airport of Central City. Her first mission, before heading to baggage claim, was to find a bathroom. In an airport, that wasn't a hard thing to find. Next, her next goal was to find a pay phone, which was even easier to find in an airport.

"Guess who?", she said into the phone. "Yeah, hey it's me. How ya been, scarecrow? I missed ya. Well, actually, I'm at the airport. Central City's airport. Yeah, surprise. No, I'm here on business. I'm trying to track down a lead on some- Uh, I don't think I should really say that much in public, ya know? I'll explain everything later. No, I'm fine. Hey, I'm really sorry to ask you this on such short notice… But do you mind if I stay at your place while I'm here? I probably should'a called you and asked sooner, but I was so busy trying to balance school and work and still get out her before the trail went cold. Huh? Oh, thanks so much! Sorry again about the short notice. Well, yeah, I guess handing things fast _is_ your specialty. A ride? Yeah, it might be nice to see ya. I'll meet you at the baggage claim? Alright, what's your E.T.A.? …two minutes…? Uh… I might need a bit more time then that, so jog slowly." She chuckled. "Alright, thanks scarecrow. I'll see ya at the baggage claim. Bye."

She hung up the phone and proceeded to the baggage claim.

-X-

The _Heart Of Eternity Diamond_… It was cut into the shape of a heart, and all 27.64 carats of its rare _blue_ color was enough to inspire and impress anyone. The magnificent blue gem, taken from the Premier Mine in South Africa, had almost been stolen once already.

It, and the even more impressive _Millennium Star_ diamond, was the target of thieves who broke into the Millennium Dome with a bulldozer, snatched the rocks, and planned to immediately flee in an awaiting speedboat. The hilariously simple plot would have worked too, if police had not known about the plot ahead of time and foiled it promptly.

Red X hoped his attempt at stealing the _Heart Of Eternity_ would not end that way.

He wasn't the only one.

-X-

The door to the underground bar opened, and Red X stepped through casually. He had heard about this place from Ragdoll, a nobody thief who fancied himself a legend.

It was a villains-only bar, the most sacred and hollow ground among those who lived on a dishonest buck. Here in this malevolent bethel, villains could safely wear his or her mask and costume among peers with pride and comfort. The locations of such secret bars were closely-guarded secrets, and fighting within its sacred walls was forbidden.

"Hey!", the bartender called to Red X. "Don't recognize your face."

"Name's Red X.", the teenage thief replied. "Ever hear of me? I'm new in town."

"Hey! Anyone here ever heard of a 'Red X?'", the bartender asked. Most residents of the pub shrugged, but a group of three wiry old men in the corner replied that he was legit. The bartender turned back to X. "Alright… Just keep this place to yourself, ya here?"

"Don't worry, pops.", Red X said as he walked past the bartender and took a seat at the bar. "This isn't my first Villians-Bar. Anything decent to eat here?"

"Hey! That's Red X!", one of the three wiry old men said to his other two scruffy companions that sat at a booth with him.

"Who?", one of those scruffy companions said.

"The super-thief from Jump City. Kid's young but they say he's one of the best thieves out there already.", the first old man replied.

"Snazzy costume… I remember when I could fit in my costume.", the second old man said.

"We all remember when you could slide into that thing… No matter how hard we try not to.", a third old man said. That old man took a long look at Red X. "They sure are growing evil young these days. What's the kid's story?"

"Nobody knows. He just showed up out of nowhere and kicked the Teen Titan's tooshies.", the first replied.

"Him?"

"That's what got his reputation on a kick start. He's known for being one of the only villains who can regularly do that."

"Yeah… I've heard rumors about him too. But that's all I've heard.", the third said.

"They got my order wrong… I didn't order this.", the second old man said as he poked his food while the two sharper old men continued to talk.

The first old man looked back at Red X over his shoulder. "I heard he used to be top in his class at the H.I.V.E. Academy, but he wouldn't let anyone boss him around. You know? He was a rebellious kid. Brilliant, but rebellious and nothing but trouble. He didn't care about all the world domination stuff, either." The old man turned back to his companions. "So Brother Blood got tired of his shenanigans and expelled him. After that he went solo just before H.I.V.E. got turned into yesterday's news…"

At the bar, Red X leaned closer to a young villainess in a white costume and said, "Excuse me, Miss… I just so happen to have lost my phone number. Can I have yours?"

The third old man spoke up. "Yeah, I heard that rumor too. Know what else I hear? I heard he grew up a carnie kid, in a traveling carnival. Then he got taken under a master thief's wing."

The villainess splashed her drink in Red X face, and then walked off. Red X sat almost grudgingly still for a moment, before turning to the bartender and requesting a towel.

"I like my story better. I say he's from H.I.V.E.", the first old man argued.

"Yeah? Well I trust the guy who told me he used to be a carnie.", the third stated.

"I say his hair's pink and he's from the moon!", the second one said.

The old men were quiet for a moment.

"Fred… Did you take your medication this morning?", the third asked.

"I told you… I'm the great Sardine Man!", the second proclaimed.

"Shh! Look! I think the lad's luck with the ladies might've turned around.", the first said as he pointed back to Red X.

Red X was rubbing the dirty towel over his mask to dry it off, when the bartender set a glass down next to X. "Huh?", he set the towel down away from his masked face. "What's this?"

"Compliments of the lady over there.", the bartender said with a wink and a grin, then pointed across the bar.

Red X looked over and saw a very familiar face sitting at a dark booth in the corner of the bar, past the thugs playing on billiard tables. Red X sneered. "Thanks for the tip, mac." Then he took the drink and walked towards the lady.

"You're late. Didn't think you'd ever get here.", Blackfire said in her seat as she leaned forward and rested on her elbows, a flirtatious smirk on her well sculpted face.

"Not easy moving around in this city.", Red X said as he took a seat across from her in the booth. "Whole place is filled with good Samaritans and Boy Scouts. Bet Robin would hate it here."

"Hey!", the second old man said to his friends. "How's he gonna drink that with his mask on?"

"Maybe he'll take it off?", the third proposed.

"Nah…", the first said like a grandfather telling a bed time story. "I wouldn't put my money on it."

"So what's a girl like you doing in a place like this to see a guy like me?", Red X asked.

"Well, X… If you're here that can only mean one thing. You're here to steal something. The diamond that's shaped like a heart?"

"Know anything else worth stealing here?"

"Thought so…" She leaned back in her seat and idly held her glass. "But… You might have some competition?"

Red X raised an eyebrow. "Competition?"

"Take off your mask…!", the second old man said.

"He's not going to do that.", the first said.

"Ever hear of André Le Blanc?", Blackfire asked.

"Le Blanc? That French weenie?", Red X asked.

"Yeah. Nobody's supposed to know, but I heard that Ross Malverk hired two thieves to steal the diamond. And I'm guessing you're the other one?"

Red X looked aside with a slight chuckle. "I'm not admitting anything…" Then he turned back to her. "How'd you even find out about all this?"

Blackfire chuckled and ran her finger over the rim of her glass. "Tongue's get loose around me…"

_That's not all that gets loose…_, Red X thought to himself.

"I happen to hear that Malverk hired Le Blanc. And if you're here for the same score, that means you're going to have competition."

Red X leaned back and rested an arm on top of the booth's backrest. "I think I can handle PePe Le Pew.", he said confidently. "But thanks for the tip, toots. Why did you tell me anyway?"

She smiled coyly. "X… I'd be crushed if anything ever happened to my favorite thief." She paused. "Aren't you going to drink that?"

"Guess there's no harm…", Red X said.

"Here it comes! He'll take off his mask!", the third old man said.

Red X reached behind his belt, and withdrew… A large blue curly straw.

The second and third old man nearly collapsed.

The first held his arms crossed smugly. "Told you."

Red X only enjoyed a few sips and idly flirts with the Tamaranian man-eater. Then, he put away his straw behind his back and made his leave. He waved at the three old men who validated his right to be here as he past beside them.

Then he walked out the door as cool and confident as he had come.

-X-

It was quiet in the Central City Gala Of Art.

The _Heart of Eternity Diamond_ rested on a cylindrical metal platform, and a tempered glass cylinder raised from that platform up to the ceiling above. Four separate invisible infrared lasers spun around the cylindrical glass display at speeds so quickly that not even a fly could touch the service of the display without setting off an alarm. In which case, the diamond would fall into the metal half of the cylindrical display and a series of iris doors would close over it, sealing it in its titanium tube. It would take four individual keys turned at the same time to open it again.

The _Diamond's_ display stood in a room that was roughly in the shape of an octagon, and was accessed from large corridors on opposite sides of the room. Half the octagonal room protruded from the rest of the Gala and was thusly covered by a series of full body windows. The other half, within the Gala's main walls, was decorated with facts and displays all centering around the _Diamond_ and its splendor. Six different security cameras in that room alone watched the diamond from all angles. Two special microphones on the ceiling could distinguish the sound of breaking glass, and were programmed to set off an alarm if they detected breaking glass or any other loud noise for that matter.

There was an absence of laser trip wires on the floor. That was so the armed guard who stood next to the _Diamond_ wouldn't set off an alarm.

The control room was in a smaller, separate building. David Slack had just sat down in his seat in the control room and prepared for another three hours of gazing at the seemingly infinite space of monitors in the huge control room.

Fifteen minutes later…

_Knock knock!_

"Hmm?" David got up from his seat and marched to the door of the control room. He pressed the button on the intercom. "State your name and business."

"It's Murakami.", the voice replied on the other end of the intercom.

"Glen?", David said. "Your shift just finished, what are you doing here?"

"My wallet's gone. Must've slipped out of my pocket when it was my shift. Open up, will ya?"

"Well… Alright." David unlocked the door and opened it.

And a gloved hand instantly reached in from outside and chopped poor David in the side of the neck. David's legs collapsed and he began to fall but the hands caught him and held his unconscious body up.

The intruder walked in and gently set David on the ground, then kicked the door closed. The intruder wore a guard's uniform with the tag "Murakami" on the shirt.

The security camera in the control room caught it all on tape, but after a flick of the intruder's arm, a red x-shaped shuriken was buried in the camera's lenses.

The intruder in a guard's uniform stood up and took off his hat, and Red X smiled to himself. The teenage thieving prodigy wore a stolen guard's uniform over his suit, but had taken a guard's cap to hopefully draw attention away from his distinct skull-mask.

The late night security guard, Glen Murakami, always changed shifts with David Slack at this time. Red X had broken into Glen's home and stolen a spare uniform for just this occasion.

"Time to go to work…"

Red X strolled over to the security console. He knew he couldn't out-right disable the systems without setting off a fail-safe alarm, but he _could_ make them useless. The footage captured by the cameras were all instantly burned onto high resolution DVDs automatically and stored in a fully automated system.

Which Red X swiftly disconnected.

The DVD's were burned and stored in an automated system held inside a large locked cabinet. Red X had only to use his laser torch to cut the fiber-optic cable that fed data to the burner. Then he easily used the torch to defeat the cabinet's lock, and take the DVD that held the footage of Red X knocking out the guard in the control room.

With the guard unconscious, no one would notice Red X stealing the diamond; and with the recording system disabled, no one_ ever_ would.

Red X injected the guard with a tranquilizer to make sure he had a nice pleasant nap while Red X worked. While he was at it, he stole David Slack's security clearance card and radio. Then, still in the stolen guard's uniform, Red X put back on his cap and exited the control room.

Red X entered the main museum and strolled through it merrily like any other guard would. It felt so odd walking into a museum through the front door. He had toured the museum as a disguised civilian earlier when it was open, and easily spotted where ever laser trip wire was. The laser grids may have been made of invisible infrared-beams, but they were placed in ways so that guards could make customary patrols and inspections without being mistaken for the very kind of burglar theywas meant to stop.

He neared the octagonal room that the _Heart Of Eternity Diamond_ was stored, and immediately darted backwards into the corridor again when he saw a guard leaning against the wall.

Red X cursed himself for forgetting to remember that the _Diamond_ would _have_ to have a guard around 24/7. But the good news was that the guard didn't see him, and the better news was that he already had a plan.

Red X withdrew the monocular from his utility belt, hidden uncomfortably under the guard uniform's shirt, and zoomed in on the guard's nametag from behind the corner of the corridor that led into the room. Then he put it away as he withdrew the guard radio he stole for David Slack.

"Scott Menville.", Red X said over the radio. "Report to ballroom number two. One of the other guards got sick and you need to take over his station."

"What about the diamond?", Scott the guard asked into his radio.

Red X quickly but silently backed into the corridor more. "I've already sent someone to cover the Diamond. He should be there any second, I see him in the hallway. Report to the ballroom, those orders come strait from the top."

"Roger roger, control room. I'll leave when I see the new guy. Over and out." Scott put away his radio.

Now all Red X had to do was casually walk into the room, and not let the guard see his face.

Take off the mask?

…

_Never._

Red X pulled his cap lower over his face and buried his hands in his pocket. Years of practicing the "art of cool" allowed him to casually walk into the room. "I'm here to take over.", Red X said, deliberately changing his voice as much as possible. "You're needed in-"

"Yeah, I heard.", Scott stood strait and began walking off down the opposite corridor that Red X emerged from. He didn't even look at Red X as the thief in disguise walked up to the _Diamond _and gazed at it objectively, like any guard should.

After Scott the guard was long gone, Red X breathed out a long sigh of relief. Pure luck.

But X would think about that later. Now he had a diamond to steal.

From his tour as a civilian, Red X noticed instantly that the diamond display had been constructed just for this exhibit, and was not integrated with the main security system. He'd need to bypass the sound sensors and 4 spinning infrared lasers on his own.

Which would be a problem, ya know, if he was just winging this.

Red X shed his guard's uniform quickly, bounded up the wall, jumped, and slapped a noise canceling cup over one sound sensor. Then he did the same to the other wall and sensor. The cups, working on similar principle as a _BOSE QuietComfort 3_, ensured that the sensors would hear no loud shouts or breaking glass.

Now for the lasers and display case.

Red X withdrew a metal object that unfolded into a series of mirrors and the metal limbs needed to hold the mirrors in place. At the bottom of the apparatus was a magnet. Red X attached the magnet to the metal base, bent one of the limbs carefully, and slid the mirrored apparatus into the beam of mirrors that circled the glass display.

The invisible infrared lasers all were sent aside, and bounced around the mirrors before being reflected back onto their original path. But this left an empty spot in the middle of all the mirrors, just a little bit bigger then Red X's hand, where no laser existed. The lasers continued to spin, moving along the various vectors of Red X's surprisingly simple mirrored apparatus.

X smiled to himself. The rest would be easy. He withdrew the laser torch, that Robin had been kind enough to include standard with the suit, and began cutting through the glass. A tiny suction-cup with a peg-like handle was placed in the middle of the piece X was cutting away, so the thief could safely remove it.

With the glass piece cut, X removed the section and put away his laser torch. He set the glass piece gently on the ground and removed the suction cup.

There it was. Through the hand-sized hole that had been cut, surrounded by a matrix of mirrors, was one of the world's most valuable diamonds.

The _Heart Of Eternity Diamond_ rested on a small pedestal that included a very, _very_ sensitive pressure-sensor. If Red X so much as touched the gem, alarms would sound.

He slowly reached his right hand through the mirrors, past the hole, and into the display. His gloved fingers slithered around the diamond but didn't touch them. The fingers hovered just slightly under the diamond and to the sides.

Red X paused for a moment, and tried to ignore the sweat beads that traveled down his brow and back under the suit.

Then, he reached out with his left hand, extended his left index finger, and with all the precision of a surgeon… Touched the path of the infrared lasers!

Suddenly the pedestal holding the diamond retracted deep into the metal display case, iris hatches closing over it to sealing it away. But the _Heart of Eternity_ was in Red X's hand. X quickly withdrew his hand from the display just as a metal sleeve from the ceiling began to cover the whole display. Red X ripped his mirrored apparatus away before it could be crushed.

The pedestal and diamond, by design, retracted into the case so quickly that it would almost certainly trigger the pressure sensors anyway. So Red X knew that putting his fingers just barely under the diamond's sides would allowed the gem to just barely rest in his hand as the pedestal was sealed away.

Red X smirked and amused himself with the thought that it'd be hours before they opened the display case and found that the diamond was long gone.

He immediately tucked the diamond away in a compartment of his belt that was reserved just for it, and folded and put away his mirrored apparatus elsewhere in his belt.

He turned to face the brilliant windows, prepared to turn one of them into an exit, when something donned on him.

There were no alarms sounding.

Even if the case wasn't fully integrated with the Gala's main system, something was bound to be blaring and going off. Why not?

He knew he shouldn't bother sticking around to find out, but he paused a moment longer to quickly browse over the police channels with the police scanner built into his suit.

He heard nothing about a silent alarm being triggered.

Why?

Red X decided he'd spent enough time here, and was about to make his escape, when he heard a clanging sound behind him.

He snapped his head around instantly with wide eyes and saw that an air duct vent had landed on the floor. He instantly looked up and saw…

André Le Blanc.

André Le Blanc, in a graceful free-fall, being lowered by a cable and a remote-controlled winch from inside the air duct.

"Le Blanc!", Red X said. It struck Red X that it must have been Le Blanc that disabled all the alarm systems.

After the French thief had finished his graceful free-fall, a sort of dance all to its own, he hovered just on the other side of the sheltered display as Red X. "Ah… The Red X…"

Red X draped his cape around himself and narrowed his eyes into their usual glare as he stepped just around the display to see Le Blanc.

"It should not be such a surprise to see you here, I would suppose.", the large-chested Frenchman said. "After all, this is closer to your usual territory then it is to my own." He spoke as if he was completely unaware that he was dangling like an idiot just in front of another thief. "I suppose you are after _Zee Heart Of Eternity_, as well, Monsieur X?"

"Too little, too late, Frenchy.", Red X said as he withdrew the diamond and held it up in his hand proudly.

"Ha! So you did manage to steal it after all! Bravo, X. I didn't think a young _child_ such as yourself could steal more then candy!"

"Yeah? Well I did, old man. So why don't you crawl back to your retirement home and concentrate on stealing ketchup packets from the cafeteria?"

André chuckled and reached into his grey utility belt. "That wont be happening, Monsieur X. I did not expect to have to fight you, but I came prepared for such!", he withdrew a stick of TNT from his belt and held it in front of him with a grin.

Then, the next thing André saw was Red X's heel.

"Umph!", André Le Blanc flew backwards, swinging from his cable as Red X landed from the drop kick he delivered to André's face.

Red X whipped out his arm and threw a shuriken strait at the cable, which it cut like dental floss.

The French thief fell to the floor with a thump and an, "Oof!" He dizzily got up, snarled, and withdrew more sticks of TNT with a devilish smirk.

"Great…", Red X flicked several explosive shuriken into his hand from his glove.

André threw his TNT.

X threw his shuriken.

The two waves of explosives collided with each other in mid air.

_BOOM!_

When the dust cleared, both thieves knew the loud concussion would undoubtedly spook a guard into hitting a panic button. If it hadn't directly set off an alarm, that is.

"A ha! So that did not stop you? Well this next one will!" Le Blanc reached into his belt. Then he immediately shrilled like a girl and ducked below a wide volley of shuriken that hit and dug deep into the wall behind him.

Red X sprinted across the room, and rolled behind a display that boasted several, seemingly, interesting facts about the _Heart Of Eternity_. Suddenly, blowgun darts rained around and Red X tucked his legs in as the darts hit the ground around him.

"Blowgun darts?!", he called out to Le Blanc.

"A trick I picked up from the Yanomami hunters near the Amazon River when I was there to steal rare artifacts!", Le Blanc gloated.

Red X did not reply and no movement could be seen from behind the display where X took shelter.

"What is wrong, Monsieur X?", Le Blanc called out teasingly as he reloaded his blowgun. "Have you finally surrendered?"

Then, Le Blanc felt a gentle tap on his shoulder. He turned around quickly just in time to see Red X's grey fist _slam_ into his large nose.

Le Blanc backed away and held his nose.

Red X proudly fondled his belt buckle. "A trick _I_ picked up in a back alley behind a fast food joint..", he explained before taking a fighting pose.

"Very good…", Le Blanc said in a squeaky voice as he held his nose. Then he let go of his wounded honker and charged at X. "But how will you take this!"

_Thump!_

Le Blanc landed on the floor on his back, with a fresh footprint on his stomach.

"Pretty well, actually.", Red X said.

Le Blanc snarled to himself as he rose.

"Now if you don't mind, pappy, I gotta get going." He held up the diamond again. "Later, old man." Red X turned around and began to run off.

André Le Blanc immediately gave pursuit. "Not so fast!" André's skinny legs could sprint the large-chested Frenchman surprisingly quick. He nearly caught up to Red X as the teenage thief approached the corridor he entered from.

Just as Red X was about to kick his legs into second gear to loose the thief that smelt of cheap cologne and bad cheese…

A red and yellow blur appeared in front of him and left in the blink of an eye…

And it took the _Diamond_ with it, strait from Red X's hand.

X skidded to a stop, his eyes as big as dinner plates. He knew _exactly_ who that was.

The blur ran past and behind André Le Blanc, and left a dazed and spinning Arrowette behind it.

Le Blanc skid to a stop as well and almost collided into Red X. And that's when the red and yellow blur began to circle around the two thieves, and then zipped off. Leaving both Le Blanc and Red X tied up back to back in thick velvet ropes that the blur had gathered from throughout the museum.

The blur came to a screeching but quick halt… And Kid Flash showed a toothy grin to his two newest captured bad guys.

"A ha! Zee Kid Flash!", Le Blanc said.

"Oh, will you shut up?", Red X asked.

"Red X?!", Arrowette said after her head quit spinning.

Red X quickly looked over at her and cocked an eyebrow up high. "Arrowette?"

"You two know each other?", both Kid Flash and Le Blanc asked in unison.

Arrowette and Red X both looked aside and admitted in unison, "It's a long story…" Except Arrowette had a slight tinge of embarrassment in her tone while Red X, who seemed to never feel shame for his actions, sounded slightly annoyed.

"Wait! You…" Red X looked to Kid Flash, who looked more befuddled then cocky now. "…brought her?" Red X looked to Arrowette. "You two know each other?"

This time, both Arrowette and Kid Flash looked aside and shamefully said, "It's a long story…"

"I did not come here for story time!", Le Blanc said. "I came here to take zee diamond!"

"Come on now… Is this little rock really worth all the trouble?", Kid Flashed asked while holding up the diamond.

"Yes.", Red X and Le Blanc answered in a dead-pan unison.

Kid Flash took a second glance at _The Heart Of Eternity_. "I admit it's a cool diamond… And it's really, really big too! But it can't be worth all this. I mean, I don't know who you two are, but it had to have taken some brains to break into this place so far. If it wasn't for that big explosion everyone heard, you might'a got away.", Kid Flash said. "So why are two smart guys like you bothering to steal something like this instead of doing something else? Like rocket science!"

"Kid Flash, don't bother.", Arrowette said dead-pan.

Kid Flash continued with undeterred optimism. "You could, I dunno, cure some disease or something. But now you got to go to jail for a really long time just for this one little rock.", he teased.

Red X and Le Blanc both stared with heavy eyebrows and stiffly unamused faces. The two thieves glanced back to each other and nodded once.

"…and, come on, this is Central City. 'Home of Kid Flash!' Ya should have known you'd get stopped by…", Kid Flash leaned close to Red X and spoke in a mixture of sincerity and sarcasm. "The fastest guy alive!"

Red X immediately head butted the scarlet-haired loud mouth in the face.

At the same time, X balled his fists and extended a long X-blade from each hand.

"Ack!" Kid Flash's head reeled back as his eyes began to water from the strike to his nose.

Time seemed to slow down to all who observed.

Le Blanc flexed his knees and bent over suddenly, allowing Red X to fall onto his back. X cut the velvet ropes with his X-blades, and kicked the diamond from Kid Flash's hand. A spare foot also whacked the watery-eyed speedster in the chin.

With ropes shredded and diamond in mid air, Red X rolled off Le Blanc's back and both thieves righted themselves while X put away his blades.

Arrowette blinked in surprise as the sequence unfolded smoothly and very quickly. Must be a thief thing.

With the diamond flipping end over end in the air, slowly coming back down, Arrowette fed an arrow into her bow as Le Blanc dived for the diamond.

Arrowette cocked the arrow and released the string.

_Twang!_

The arrow flew through the air and struck the side of the diamond in mid air. The diamond was, of course, unharmed, but the impact spun the gem back into the air, spinning end over end.

Red X and Le Blanc both stared in shocked horror as their priceless score flew across the room and down the corridor.

Then they both darted off.

"It is mine!", Le Blanc yelled.

"Not in this life time!", Red X said as he pushed Le Blanc

Le Blanc grabbed X's head and tried to push it to the ground.

Red X grabbed Le Blanc's cap and pulled it down over his face.

"Ah! I am blind!"

The diamond skidded against the ground and bounced upwards in the air again.

The two thieves dived and held out their hands.

Red X was just slightly ahead.

The diamond fell, closer and closer to X's hand.

Almost… Almost there.

Red X almost grasped the diamond when…

A red blur snatched it up.

And both thieves skidded to a stop on their faces. And they both groaned as they rolled over onto their backs.

Kid Flash skidded to a stop between them. "Tried to warn ya.", he gloated. "Just can't catch the fastest guy alive. Might as well give up now before we go through this again.

Red X groaned loudly, looked aside, and banged the marble tile with his fist. "_Fine._", he said gruffly. Then he scowled at Kid Flash and held out both his hands near each other, to be cuffed. "Just get it over with already.", he demanded unhappily.

Arrowette had been running into the corridor so as not to miss the action, and when she heard Red X's surrender her eyes went wide, her heart skipped a beat, and her ran dwindled to a walk then a stop.

Did… Did she just hear that?

Did Red X… _Red X!_ …actually just surrender?

Kid Flash blinked in confusion too. "Really? Alright! Now that's the kinda of villain I need more of."

Arrowette knew she light years away from catching Red X, but was Kid Flash really enough to make him give up? That scarecrow haired goof-ball?!

No… Not a chance. Not a chance! Not Red X, never!

"Kid Flash! Wait!", she yelled.

Just then, Red X opened his palm to face Kid Flash and fired a sticky-X right over his eyes.

"Agh!"

Then Red X pivoted and kicked Kid Flash in the knee, making him collapse on the floor blind. "Ha!", Red X said with glee.

Then both thieves quickly got up and ran.

"_That_, was called acting, children!", Le Blanc said to the two superheroes. His cap had been corrected shortly after X pulled it down.

"Hey! Get back here you two!" Kid Flash quickly got up, prying at the x on his face, and immediately ran off… right into a wall.

Both thieves stopped, and then began to laugh hard, holding their sides. They still attempted to run off, looking back at Arrowette and Kid Flash.

"Well…", X paused to laugh once more. "Empty handed is better then cuffed!" He held up his free hands and twiddled the fingers.

"For once, I agree with him!", Le Blanc replied.

"Hey! Wait! X!", Arrowette yelled as she ran after them.

"Later kids!", X said as he ran into a window and crashed through it shoulder first.

"Au revoir!", Le Blanc said as he ran down an anonymous hallway.

_This isn't over, Le Blanc…_, X thought as he crashed through the window and disappeared beyond it.

"Yeow!", Kid Flash yelped as he ripped the x off his face. "That hurt!", he whined.

Arrowette rushed past him. "You! Get Le Blanc! X's mine!", she said. Then she fired a grappling hook-arrow and gave chase to X through the gaping hole in the window he had crashed through.

After Arrowette had disappeared beyond the window, Kid Flash began looking around. "Le Blanc? Man, where'd he go?!" Then he got up and began running around the museum, searching it one room at a time.

Outside.

Red X landed on the soft grass next to the museum wall, and released his grip on his cape, which he had used as a parachute. Then he began running along his pre-planned escape route.

He made a sharp turn around the corner of the museum and continued to run along the grass on the museum's side.

Then he heard the tail-tell sound of an arrow flying by his head, just before a real arrow hit a tree just ahead of him.

X skid to a stop and turned around on his heels. "Well well well… If it isn't my favorite cheerleader playing Robin Hood."

Arrowette came to a stop after running after Red X and quickly loaded another trick arrow into her bow. She had just turned the same corner X had and was now close to him.

To close to dodge an arrow? Even for him?

"Lost the diamond and you're gonna get caught fair and square… Looks like your luck finally ran out.", Arrowette said as she held her bow ready.

"Don't count on it.", Red X replied.

Meanwhile, on the roof.

André Le Blanc suddenly burst through the stairwell's door and stepped foot onto the asphalt of the rooftop.

There was already a helicopter on the roof, and upon seeing Le Blanc, the faithfully employed pilot started up the engine.

"Kid Flash will be after me any moment!", Le Blanc said out loud as he strapped three sticks of TNT to a large piece of decorative masonry that was part of the Gala's grand appearance. "Hopefully this will provide zee fast fool with a distraction so that moi can make my get-away!"

"Sir, you have to stop talking to yourself like that!", the pilot of the helicopter said.

"Silence, minion!", Le Blanc snapped back.

Then Le Blanc began to run back toward the chopper when suddenly a red and yellow blur zoomed past him and came to a sudden stop.

"Alright… Why don't ya quit running and give it up. Never gonna outrun me anyways.", Kid Flash said with a teasing smirk.

"A ha! A tempting offer, no? But now you have other concerns!", Le Blanc pointed to the masonry with one hand and pressed the button on a hand held detonator in his other hand, causing the TNT to explode and rip apart the masonry in a ear-shattering concussion.

"Gah!", Kid Flash gasped, loosing all of his cockiness in an instant. In another instant, he was off and running through the stairwell's roof entrances.

"Quickly, Benjamin! I must make my get-away now!", Le Blanc said as he half-jumped into the warmed up helicopter through its open side door.

"My name is Jim!!!", the pilot screamed as the helicopter rose from the rooftop.

Seconds earlier, below.

"Don't count on it.", Red X said to Arrowette.

_KABLAM!_

The masonry above exploded. Red X and Arrowette snapped their attention upwards as large chunks and bricks hurtled downwards.

"MOVE!", Red X said as he lunged forward and tackled Arrowette's midsection in one smooth motion.

The cracked and shattering masonry nipped at the tatters of X's cape as him and Arrowette hit the ground just out of the way of the brunt of the major debris.

When the crumbling debris had settled, Arrowette and X both opened their eyes to find… That Red X was on top of Arrowette and pinning her down as a result of the tackle.

Arrowette blinked a few times in surprise.

Red X narrowed his eyes, as if to smirk, and leaned his head closer. "Comfy?"

She quickly blushed beneath him.

Red X was about to make some other kind of remark, when suddenly that red and yellow blur past by above him and grabbed his cape. Red X was then yanked away and off of Arrowette by his cape like it was a leash. "Ack!", was the only remark X made.

Kid Flash screeched to a stop and released X's cape, sending the flying thief to the ground where he rolled away several times.

"Ugh…" Red X groaned and then began to rise from the ground. "Typical…" He stood up and brushed dirt off his shoulder.

"May have lost one thief tonight…", Kid Flash said with his usual boyishly optimistic charm. "But I can still nab the other."

"Easier said then done, Zippy.", Red X said.

"Oh yeah? Think you're faster then me?"

"I don't have to be.", Red X said with a confident smirk under his mask, and fondled the buckle of his belt with his finger on the button.

Kid Flash darted off towards X, disappearing into a blur.

And Red X pressed the button and disappeared.

All that Kid Flash, despite his speed, could manage to clutch with his gloved hands was air. Air that occupied a space where black clothe over mask and neck had once been just a second earlier.

Quickly slowing to normal, human, speed, Kid Flash nearly tripped over himself. "What the?!" He looked at the space near his hands with eyes the size of white dinner plates. "Where- Where'd he go?" He quickly turned back to face Arrowette. "How'd he pull a Houdini on me?"

Arrowette was getting up off the grassy ground and pattered herself down. "Yeah… He does that.", she commented.

Kid Flash stood straighter and relaxed. "Guess now he knows better then to show himself in my town.", Kid Flash said with a smile and casually held up his hands and pretended to examine his nails despite the glove.

That's how Kid Flash was. A tad egotistical and smug, but it was all for fun and smiles. Inside he was a rather humble boy whose first, second, and last thoughts were to help every single person in his sight in every single possible way, even the villains. That was all he seemed to function for, when he wasn't eating or playing video games that was.

Course, Red X had something to say about that smug smirk.

The thief suddenly reappeared behind Kid Flash, who was completely oblivious to it, and picked up an empty trashcan, that had been placed next to the museum wall, by its handles.

"Kid Flash-", was all Arrowette could say before it was too late.

Before Red X slammed the empty trashcan over Kid Flash then slapped its metal side as quickly and loudly as the thief could. Inside the trashcan, Kid Flash's head and body was victim to the repeated bangs, and amplified inside the trashcan they sounded like continuous cannon fire.

Kid Flash was shaking and vibrating like a plucky cartoon character by the time Red X let go of the trash can after one last enthusiastic slap. The speedster vibrated and stumbled aside, then tripped over his own two feet and crashed to the grown.

Arrowette looked up from Kid Flash's body and up to Red X, who met her gaze with a sort of look in his eyes that just _had_ to come from a deep smirk under his mask.

He continued his very satisfied smirk, and even gave her a quick but casual salute that then became a short wave goodbye.

Then the thief disappeared again.

Kid Flash was just beginning to come to his senses and a cold breeze blew past him and Arrowette. Police sirens could be heard approaching quickly. Both thieves had gotten away, but at least the _Heart of Eternity Diamond_ was safe.

Still, however, Arrowette sighed.

-X-

How could life be so cruel?

Arrowette had always had to deal with one little annoyance in life after another… Her mother, struggling with her super heroics, paying the bills, Red X… To name a few.

But this… This just complicated things in a whole new way. And to Arrowette, it was strangely sickening to watch. She felt her stomach tie into knots and a lump grew in her throat like a balloon in the Thanksgiving Parade.

Kid Flash's large TV showed the footage that the local news had been so kindly cruel enough to broadcast three times in a row so far.

The footage was of a room back at the Central City Gala Of Art, a grandiose room that was probably some sort of reception ballroom. And on the footage, fare enough away to be just barely out of focus, Arrowette stumbled in the room with bow and arrow in hand. The tiny version of Arrowette on TV was a bit blurry due to the low-resolution camera that had been placed in this reception ballroom. There were no great treasures in this room, unless you count marble floor and a heavy desk off to the wall, so there was no need for the sharper cameras that had guarded the _Diamond_.

But, it was a camera with a story to tell none-the-less. And on the footage broadcast to the TV, the tiny Arrowette looked around the room as if lost. Then something stepped out from a shadow nearby. It was Red X, with his cape draped over himself. He began to approach Arrowette from behind, slowly and mechanically.

The footage had no audio track, or at least none that was broadcast, but Arrowette must have heard him because she reeled around and immediately began to fire arrow after arrow at the thief.

Red X carelessly dodged each arrow by bending his cloaked body like a dancing cobra. Then he quickly began to dart towards her, slithering between arrows.

The real Arrowette, who sat on Kid Flash's couch in Kid Flash's headquarters while watching the footage, gulped unconsciously as she continued to watch.

On the footage, Red X slapped away Arrowette's bow and punched her in the stomach. Then he easily kicked her to the floor. She must have been hurt bad because the thief had enough time to casually pick up her bow then stroll over to her as if he was walking in the park.

Just as Arrowette began to get up, X clutched a fistful of her blonde hair and yanked her back down to the floor painfully. Then he turned to the exit and began dragging her off by her hair. Arrowette appeared to have yelped or howled in pain, then grabbed his wrist, pulling herself closer, to alleviate the stress on her scalp.

Red X walked off, dragging her on the floor behind him, until they were both out of site of the cameras.

Then a news anchorwoman who spewed forth what little information they had to give to the public replaced the footage, but neither the real Arrowette nor Kid Flash was listening.

"That…", Arrowette began, eyes transfixed on the TV. "That didn't happen…", she said as she had said nearly half a dozen times earlier. "That didn't happen!", she yelled out.

The anchorwoman announced that since Arrowette had not been seen since, the police were considering Arrowette officially kidnapped by Red X. But that was only a preliminary conclusion.

"That didn't happen!", Arrowette pleaded to the anchorwoman. "That didn't happen!", she begged.

In an instant, Kid Flash had zipped around the couch and was at her side, holding her shoulders and trying to offer some firm resolution that she could emotionally clutch on to. "Hey, it's alright. We'll just march down to the police and clear the whole thing up.", he said in a gentle tone.

Kid Flash was being much truer to his nature now. He'd much rather comfort then clobber, if he wasn't flirting that is.

Arrowette exhaled and inhaled a few times to catch her breath, then nodded. After a moment, she had regained enough sense to mentally chastise herself for the near outbreak over a problem that was so fixable. "Yeah… Okay. Okay.", she said.

That's when Arrowette's, or rather Cissie's, cell phone began to ring.

"Need me to give ya moment to answer that?", Kid Flash asked. And when Arrowette nodded, he zipped off in two blinks of an eye to some other part of his headquarters.

Arrowette picked up the cell phone and looked at the caller ID. "Unknown Caller", it read. Assuming it was another glitch at the hands of the cell phone company, or possibly even Red X himself, she answered the phone.

"Hello?", she asked, trying to sound as calm as possible.

"Hello, Arrowette.", an electronically altered and filtered voice said.

She silently gasped. That was Cissie's phone, not Arrowette's. The only ones who knew the difference should have been just Red X, Kid Flash, and her mother. And none of them needed to disguise their voices.

"Who- Who is this?", she asked.

"I know who you are, Cissie King-Jones.", the voice said, making Arrowette's heart skip a beat. "And if I ever see you in that mask again, I will reveal to the whole world who you are. Understand? You are to never become Arrowette again, or everyone will know where to find you."

Arrowette couldn't talk. First the footage on the news, now this. Her skin was ghostly pale, her heart wouldn't pump, time stood agonizingly still, and her eyes were wide with horror.

"Do you understand, Cissie?", the voice on her phone asked.

Arrowette couldn't answer. She felt her hands shaking.

"I said… Do you understand me?", the voice asked much firmer.

Then she hung up her phone. It was the only reaction she could muster. She looked terrified at her phone, and then threw it across the room.

She found herself breathing quickly again, almost hyperventilating. It was a bad habit of hers when she was most near panic. The knots in her stomach gave way to a wave of nausea and she felt dizzy.

And right now she only wanted to do one thing, which she did.

She screamed.

-X-

Later, across town.

Red X laid on his hotel room bed, still in costume. He was brooding over his failed heist while his legs dangled over the edge of the bed, his arms spread wide apart. He glared at the ceiling with heavy eyebrows while his pet rock rested on his chest, as if trying to encourage its master to feel better.

His communicator ringing from inside his belt interrupted his thoughts, and he groaned as he retrieved it. Once he opened it, he saw that it was Arrowette calling. He signed, answered it, and set the communicator beside his head.

"What?", he curtly asked.

A pause.

"WHAT?!", Red X jackknifed up into a sitting position, launching the pet rock on his chest across the room.

It was the most exciting highlight of his pet rock's night.

-X-

Kid Flash stared at the bathroom door sadly as he heard the sickening sounds of Arrowette's stomach wrenching and vomiting up everything she had eaten that day.

"Cissie…?", he asked after a pause. "What's wrong? Was it your mom who called?", he asked. He still didn't know about the blackmail phone call. "Don't let her get you down, you're way better then that old hag."

"It wasn't her.", Arrowette forced out, then held back another dry heave. She held her head closed to the toilet in the bathroom from behind the shut door and had given strict instructions for Kid Flash to not come in and just give her a moment.

"Is there anything I can do for ya?", he asked.

Arrowette could think of a million things she might like, but said none.

Then Kid Flash's front door slammed open, and a very disgruntled Red X walked in like he owned the place. "Alright! I want answers!", he announced angrily.

"BAH!!!", Kid Flash yelped. "Red X is here!", he yelled to Arrowette, frozen in surprise.

"Red X is here?!", Arrowette repeated back, then quickly opened the bathroom door, slamming it against Kid Flash's face, and ran happily towards the thief.

Kid Flash had mistakenly installed the door on backwards when he renovated the old building, and was simply never motivated enough to fix the door. Of course, now the throbbing pain of his nose might be enough to motivate him.

"I saw the news. Didn't like it.", Red X stated plainly. "What happened?", he demanded.

Arrowette stopped just in front of him, looking paler and sicker then he'd ever seen her. She had taken off her mask long ago, to get some cool air against her pale face, and stood looking at X with pleading eyes.

Red X seemed just so slightly taken back by her condition. "Arrowette?", he asked.

"Agh! You're unmasked!", Kid Flash announced in a panic. Then he blurred past Arrowette, sending the poor girl spinning away. He zipped to his kitchen, fetched a few paper bags, and then sped back to put one over Arrowette's face. Stuck in a panicked and impulsive run, he also put one over Red X head then stopped between them and pulled one of his own masked face too.

"Scarecrow…", Arrowette said gently, calling Kid Flash her favorite nickname for him which was inspired by his straw-like slick red hair. "He's known my secret identity for a long time.", she said as she pulled off the bag.

At the same time, Red X pulled off the bag with a great bit of annoyance.

"He- He does?", Kid Flash pulled off his own bag, letting it fall to the floor, just as Red X stuffed his paper bag in the Speedster's mouth.

"Yes. He does.", Red X said about himself as he removed his hand, leaving a paper bag gag in Kid Flash's mouth.

He spit out the crumpled bag and looked at Arrowette. "He knows?"

Arrowette nodded.

"Yeah, and I know who you are too.", Red X said.

Kid Flash snapped his head back to Red X. "You do?!", he asked with a hint of panic.

"Well… I don't know _who_ you are. But I know that _you're_ the one who turned in her mom for trying to make a superhero out of her.", Red X quickly glanced to Arrowette, sickly and in costume sans the mask. "Good job.", Red X commented to Kid Flash.

Kid Flash laughed with a nervous chuckle and rubbed the back of his head. "Yeah… That was me." Then he brought his attention back to the matters at hand. "What are you doing here anyway?"

"I called him.", Arrowette said. "From inside the bathroom.", she pointed her thumb weakly behind her at the bathroom. "I… X, I need your help.", she said to him.

"What? He's a thief!", Kid Flash instantly appeared between them and facing Arrowette. "How can you trust a thief? Besides, you got me. I'll help ya out."

"Kid Flash… There's more to this then the news footage.", she said. With a frown she held up her cell phone, which she had picked up earlier. "Someone… Someone called me. Knew my name, knew I was Arrowette. Said if I ever put on the costume in public again… He'd tell everyone."

Red X's eyes opened wider, and Kid Flash's eyes even wider then that.

"What?", he asked.

"Wanna run that by me again?", Red X asked from behind Kid Flash's shoulder.

Arrowette told them about the phone call in greater detail, reciting it word for word.

Both the Speedster and the thief were quiet, dogging after words and thoughts that seemed to slip by.

Red X was the first one to catch his thoughts. "So let me get this strait…", he began. "Somehow, an imposter me kidnapped and imposter you, framing me. And then, right after that, _someone_ just so happens to call you up and blackmails you into never putting on the costume again. Am I right so far?"

Arrowette nodded.

Red X's eyes narrowed into white slivers on his mask. "Someone's framed me. And you can't lift a finger to stop it, can you?"

Arrowette shook her head.

"Great…", Red X said sarcastically.

"Hey, come on, guys.", Kid Flash began. "This can't be that hard to figure out.", he encouraged.

"Let me see that phone.", Red X said calmer.

Arrowette handed it to X's outstretched hand past Kid flash, and X examined it. "It was an Unknown Call.", she informed him. "Can't figure out who called me."

"So? We'll just go down to the phone company and have them trace the number.", Kid Flash said.

"Ah ah.", Red X said as he examined the phone. "It was probably a disposable cell phone he called from, which is probably already at the bottom of a city park trash can."

"How would you know that?", Kid Flash asked.

Red X looked up from the phone and said matter-of-factly, "It's what I would have done."

"See? We need Red X's help on this.", Arrowette said, still with that sad and weak look on her face. "Wadda ya say, X? Can ya help me out? Please?", she asked with the saddest look on her face imaginable.

Red X couldn't tell if she was trying to soften him up with that face or if she really was that desperate.

He stepped aside, so that Kid Flash was no longer between them, and sighed audibly. "Guess I'm already neck deep in this.", he said, pointing his thumb to the TV, which was once again playing that footage. "Only way to save my skin is to save yours.", he paused shortly. "Fine. I'll see what I can do.", he said gruffly, as if he wasn't pleased with it but agreed anyway.

Arrowette relaxed a great deal more to have Red X's skill and expertise coming to her aid.

"Whoa whoa whoa…", Kid Flash said, stepping in front of Red X again. "Why are you helping? You're a thief."

"I have my reasons, flat foot. Out of the way.", Red X said and tried to move past him.

But Kid Flash wouldn't let him pass. "Come on… Tell me why you're helping out."

"I'm a thief, not a kidnapper and not a babysitter.", he said with a hint of annoyance, but much less annoyance then he had a few moments ago. "I'm not taking the wrap for this one.", Red X instructed.

"Yeah right, like I'm buying that. Why are you really bothering to help?"

Red X glared and tried to move, but Kid Flash refused to let him pass. "Fine. Really wanna know?", Red X asked.

"Yeah.", Kid Flash asked, seriously. "I do."

"I've saved her life a couple of times by now, she owes me." He leaned in and spoke menacingly on purpose. "And she can't exactly pay me back if she's at the bottom of the river with concrete shoes, can she?"

Kid Flash stared just slightly dumbfounded. He expected it to be a selfish reason, but not quite like that.

"Think of this as…", X paused, as if to search for the right words. "Protecting my investment." He patted Kid Flash on the shoulder in a friendly manor as he effortlessly passed by.

"That- That's it?", Kid Flash asked.

"Hey, I'm a villain, remember?", Red X asked with a hint of sarcastic venom in his voice.

Arrowette was also taken back. Was that really all she was to Red X? An investment? Was he only helping her out so she'd continue to be in his debt?

Then again… Red X had always shunned away from any sort of noble light. Maybe Red X did care about her somehow, and only fabricated such a lie to protect his reputation. It was entirely possible. In fact, it was probable.

Of course it was just a lie to protect his reputation. Red X had gone above and beyond to help her several times when they had first met. She had confronted him about his subtle kind side once, and he had reacted quite defensively towards her.

Surely, this was just a lie to protect his reputation.

And as Red X walked away from Kid Flash and past her too, the tatters of his cape teasingly touched her weak legs before vanishing away.

"Get a copy of that footage, order some Chinese food, and blow your nose.", Red X instructed both of them as he walked off further into Kid Flash's home, sounding ironically similar to how Robin gave orders to the Teen Titans.

Then he stopped and looked behind over his shoulder at both of them.

"It's gonna be a long night. Better get some egg rolls with that Chinese.", he said.

………………………………………………………………………………...

Author's Note: It's the attack of the ever-growing chapters. How long will my chapters get before I'm stopped? Who knows! Oh well, no one's complained yet so I guess nobody minds.

Hope I wrote Kid Flash in character. He seemed a bit harder to write then I thought.

All facts about the _Heart of Eternity Diamond _and the_ Millennium Star_ were true, aside from the events of this story, that is.

Oh, and thanks for that review Silent Scope. I always wondered about that sort of thing.

Either way… Stay tuned! Ya never know when I'll _impale _you with the next chapter of _Twice A Thief_.


	3. Russian Lullaby

"Do not spit in the well – you may be thirsty by and by." -Russian Proverb

………………………………………………………………………………...

Gone.

Red X stood alone in a dark and unlit office floor that was completely devoid of any business-like apparel; devoid of desks, lights, chairs, and all-in-one photocopiers.

_I wasn't just framed… I was conned._, Red X thought grudgingly to himself.

Just a week earlier, this had been the lively and busy office of Ross Malverk, one of Central City's largest crime lords. The very same office that Red X had walked through on his way to an interview with Mr. Malverk, where he then hired Red X to steal _The Heart of Eternity_.

And now it was empty.

And Red X was upset.

-X-

Red X skidded to a stop and parked his bike behind a dumpster. It wasn't his usual crotch-rocket he was riding; it was a different and more civilian bike that he had borrowed just for the diamond heist that had gone so horribly array.

Red X began to walk off down the empty and dirty alleyway on his own with his cape draped over his shoulders. And that's when a yellow and red blur rushed towards him from behind and skidded to a quick stop next to him.

The surprise appearance of Kid Flash startled Red X, but only a little. He was growing more and more used to that walking case of athlete's foot appearing everywhere.

"Howdy.", Kid Flash greeted him.

Red X narrowed his eyes just slightly, as if announcing that Kid Flash would not receive a fond welcome. "Any luck?", he asked.

"Yeah, actually. André Le Blanc announced later that he'd be stealing some Fabergé Egg next.", Kid Flash asked.

"Which one?", Red X asked instantly, as if with urgency.

Kid Flash blinked a few times. "Um… I forget, it was named after some Danish chick."

"The _Danish Jubilee_?", Red X asked deadpan.

"Yeah! How'd you know?"

"It's my job to know." Red X turned away from Kid Flash and continued walking down the alley.

"What about you?", Kid Flash asked while walking with Red X at normal human speed.

"My employer's nowhere to be found. I asked all around too. Which means it's a safe bet he was in it on this whole frame-up too."

"That mean you'll consider actually telling me who he is…?", Kid Flash leaned in and asked with a hopeful smile.

"Ross Malverk.", Red X said simply. "He set me up so there's no reason I should keep him a secret."

"Ross Malverk?", Kid Flash asked. "Him?"

"Him." Red X wasn't being very talkative or polite to Kid Flash, and he made no attempt at disguising it. He just simply wasn't in good enough a mood to be his usual charismatic self. But to betray his stand-off-ishness, he reluctantly asked, "How is she?"

"Last I saw her, she was sleeping still."

"Probably should let her, for now away."

"Why do you care, again?", Kid Flash asked.

"I told you, Zippo. She owes me and I can't collect if she's six feet under."

Soon they approached a door attached to some rundown looking brick building in the alley.

"After you.", Red X said, gesturing to the door but now in mock-manners and politeness.

Kid Flash opened the door and entered first. Then Red X followed suit.

The door had been a backdoor into Kid Flash's headquarters, and now the two color clashing masked men walked out of Kid Flash's kitchen and into his living room.

Cissie King-Jones was sitting on the floor, just in front of Kid Flash's big screen TV. She was watching the security surveillance footage of the imposter Red X kidnapping "her" again.

"Sleeping Beauty's up.", Red X commented.

Then Cissie rewound the footage and began to watch the attack all over again.

"Uh… Cissie?", Kid Flash asked. It still felt odd to say her name in front of Red X.

"That's not me.", she said as she stared at the footage and began rewinding again.

"Yeah, we figured that out.", Red X tried to hide the dripping sarcasm from his voice. As much as he would have loved to verbally attack everyone in the room, he knew it wouldn't help anyone.

"No. I mean… I found proof.", she said.

"Proof?", Red X walked over to her, but by the time he got there Kid Flash had already zipped over and was sitting next to Arrowette and looking at the big screen TV like a child. "What'd you find?", Red X asked Arrowette.

"There." She paused the footage, freezing the imposters in a single moment in time.

Red X bent over to examine the image on the TV. "What am I looking at here?"

"Her.", Arrowette pointed to her imposter on screen. "She's an amateur. Look at her arm."

Red X looked closer, then he saw it. "Oh…", he said with understanding.

"What? What is it?", Kid Flash asked.

Arrowette pointed to the figure on the screen. "She's holding her elbow in, flush with her body, when she holds the bow. Only amateurs who never got a single archery lesson do that, it's everyone's first instinct. But you're supposed to hold your elbow way out, away from your body." Cissie pretended to hold and invisible bow and arrow, illustrating the positions she mentioned. She looked back at her outstretched elbow. "That way the shoulders do all the work. Every half-decent archer knows that."

"But she didn't.", Red X said as he stood up but still looked at the tape.

"Oh… I see.", Kid Flash said, glancing between the screen and Cissie.

"She probably never held a bow and arrow before in her life!", Cissie said as she put down her arms. Then she turned and looked up to Red X. "That's proof! Right?"

"Not enough. That's all circumstantial.", Red X said sadly. "Police are stingy about that kind of thing."

She turned back to Kid Flash. "Can't you convince them?"

"I can tell them I have a hunch or something…" Kid Flash shrugged. "But without evidence they'll still believe the tape."

Cissie frowned and Kid Flash couldn't stand the sad look in her eyes. This was tearing her up inside more then she let on to either of them. Then she felt X's hand on her shoulder, and she looked up at him over her shoulder.

"Time to get moving. I have a lead thanks to Zippo here.", X said.

"A lead?"

Red X removed his hand and let it retreat back inside the cape that draped so comfortably around him. "I asked him to check out Le Blanc for a reason."

"Yeah… Why was that anyway?", Kid Flash asked.

"Because if these two dimwits are as dumb as we think…" X pointed to the TV screen, which was still paused on the image of the two imposters. "Then there's no way they got into that museum on their own. And I sure didn't let them in."

"You think Le Blanc let them in?", Cissie asked.

"Le Blanc always announces his heists beforehand, that's how arrogant he is. But he didn't announce this last one, hardly anyone knew. And he disabled the entire system instead of getting around just one or two parts like I did."

"Why didn't you take it all down like he did?", Kid Flash asked.

"Too much work. Besides… It's funnier to still have to slide by a few things.", Red X said slyly. "But this weenie went and disabled everything and somehow didn't trip a fail-safe in doing it.", he said, obviously referring to Le Blanc. "It would have been easy for Dumb and Dumber here to get in.", he pointed sharper toward the screen to refer to the imposters.

"So Le Blanc was in on this too…", Cissie said. Her voice was firmer and more seriously once she had some lead or clue to follow, some glimmer of hope to hang onto.

"I think so." He casually gestured to Kid Flash with his hand. "And Zippo here tells me Le Blanc announced he'll be stealing a Fabergé Egg called the _Danish Jubilee_. That's how we'll find Le Blanc."

"Great!" Kid Flash stood up with excitement from his spot on the floor. "We just gotta get to the Egg before he does and we got 'em!" He smiled proudly and pointed to himself. "And he'll never get there before I do."

"One problem, Zippy.", Red X said.

"What's that?"

"It's been missing since 1903.", X said deadpan again.

Everyone was quiet.

"…That… Could be a problem.", Cissie said. Then she took in a quick breath. "Okay, so how do we find it? You don't know where it is, do you?"

"Nope. But I may know someone who does.", Red X said slyly again. "Pack your bags, girly. It's road-trip time."

"What about me?", Kid Flash asked.

"You need to stay here, for now anyway."

"What? Why?", the red haired speedster almost seemed disappointed.

"Everyone thinks I kidnapped Arrowette, and you're supposed to too.", Red X said. "We can't afford to let our enemies know we're on their trail."

"I guess you got a point there…", He said while looking off to the side.

"Besides, I need someone to look for Malverk, remember?"

"Oh yeah…", Kid Flash said with a smile, as if happy to help and be apart of the grand adventure.

"Malverk?", Cissie asked.

"Ross Malverk. The guy who hired him to steal that fancy diamond.", Kid Flash said.

"You can tell her all about it while I get our ride ready." Red X turned and began to walk off.

-X-

Cissie King-Jones, dressed in cargo pants and a hoodie jacket, walked out of the backdoor of Kid Flash's headquarters. She thought since Arrowette was supposed to be MIA, it would be better for Cissie to dress more discretely. A duffle bag was strapped to her shoulder and hung heavily by her hip.

She sighed to herself as she collected her thoughts. "So, any idea what this 'ride' of Red X's is?"

Kid Flash was close behind her, in his normal red and yellow costume. "Isn't it his bike?"

"I kinda doubt he'd tell me to pack my bags for a bike ride. Maybe though…", Arrowette said.

Suddenly they both heard a low roaring hum that came from above Kid Flash's headquarters.

Arrowette and Kid Flash climbed up an access ladder and emerged on the roof to find…

A black jet-like aircraft was hovering above the surface of the rooftop. It was the piece of the Titan's East ship that X had stolen. And in the months since he stole it, he had repainted and modified it for his own personal use.

Red X, it's new owner and pilot, sat in the cockpit and was occupied with flipping switches and reading displays on the cockpit console. As if he knew what he was doing.

He looked up at Arrowette and Kid Flash. "Hop in.", he said over the engines.

"Oooo… _That's_ his ride…", Kid Flash said.

A few minuets later, Cissie King-Jones was strapped in the passenger seat. Her duffle bag shoved somewhere tight in the little cargo space there was aboard.

"Bye! I'll miss you! Send me a post card!", Kid Flash called out over the engines while waving his hand.

Red X's heart-felt reply was the close the cockpit canopy. "Ready for take off?", he asked Cissie.

"Wait a min… I'm sitting on something awkward." Cissie reached down into her seat's cushions and removed… "What the?" …Red X's pet rock.

She paused.

"X… Why is there a rock in my seat?"

"He's my travel companion.", he said matter-of-factly as he reached back and took the rock from her hand, and set the rock elsewhere the cockpit.

Cissie chuckled.

"Alright then…" He pushed a lever in the cockpit and the aircraft's thrusters roared even louder.

Outside, Kid Flash quickly rushed off the rooftop, lest he get fried to a crisp somehow.

Under X's control, the aircraft rose higher up into the air.

"Vertical takeoff?", Cissie asked as she looked out the cockpit.

"Gotta love Titan technology.", X said a sneer and a smirk. "Okay… Engines, fuel, power, life support…", he said as he read displays. "Atomic batteries to power. Turbines to speed. All that good stuff.", he chuckled to himself quietly. "Oh, hey, Cissie?"

"Yeah?"

"Have you done everything you ever wanted to do in life?"

"Um… No?"

"Too bad." Red X slammed his fists against the throttle control, and both him and Cissie were jerked back into their seats violently.

X's jet accelerated quickly with a blast of its engines, and sliced through the air quickly, as if half guided by alien technology (Tamaranian to be precise). The jet smoothly flew above the buildings and warehouse of Central City's industrial district, and began to gain altitude as X pulled back on the control yoke.

"X…", Cissie began with alert, as she peeled herself out of the back of her small passenger seat. "X… Look out!"

"I see it.", X said as he flew strait for a much taller building.

"X!"

Red X hesitated only half a second longer before jerking the control yoke and sending the craft flying strait upwards, and flew strait up and parallel to the tall building's windowed surface.

"AGH!!!", Cissie screamed the whole way up.

Then, after gaining enough altitude, X corrected the craft's angle and sent it flying eastward while still rising higher, aimed at the upper atmosphere.

After a few moments of rising and flying Eastward, the craft had reached its desired altitude. Cissie looked around at the clouds around and below them for a moment.

Then the craft's engine exhaust, normally a bluish blast, gained a distinct red core. X's jet's speed increased as a result of the Zynothium afterburners X had installed on the craft.

Cissie fought the slight tug of acceleration as the craft entered supersonic speeds with barely a whine of effort from the craft.

Red X shook his head and said to himself, "Love this thing. Why didn't I steal it sooner?"

"X… Are you sure this thing is safe?", Arrowette asked, hoping she'd be able to feel her own heartbeat again in a moment.

"As safe as a miniature air craft designed with half-Tamaranian technology and powered by a retrofitted unstable Zynothium powercore can be.", he said merrily.

A nervous whimper escaped past Cissie's awkwardly uncomfortable smile.

And that made X laugh.

-X-

Hours later.

"Okay…", Cissie said as she read a magazine she had brought aboard in her duffle bag. "Next question. When was the last time you cried?" She looked up from her magazine.

"When I got sand in my eyes.", Red X said matter-of-factly.

"That's it?", she questioned.

"Yep."

A pause.

He turned his head around and looked back at her. "What?", he asked defensively. "Do I look emo to you?", he said sarcastically.

"Right…"

Red X shook his head in dismissal. "Either way, we're here.", he said as the aircraft descended more.

Cissie looked out the cockpit canopy window and behind the city growing closer and closer below them.

Tall buildings were packed together like one giant concrete mass. Roads and bridges looped and twisted between every conceivable structure, like spaghetti noodles in one big over-urbanized dish. Neon signs, billboards, lights, and advertisements all glowed like millions of fireflies caught in a net. People could not be seen yet, especially with the glaring light of the morning sun emerging beyond artificial hills and mountains that were composed of concrete and rebar.

"So…", Cissie said. "This is Tokyo, huh?"

Red X had drastically lowered speed and dropped to what some would consider dangerously low altitude, skimming just over the rooftops and cityscapes as the aircraft glided to its destination like magic.

Finally, the aircraft began to halt and slowly descended toward a particular rooftop.

The rooftop had a few people on it, women clad in bikinis and towels. A large pool was stationed in the middle of the rooftop, and a table full of emptied drinks and bottles stood next to it.

Red X slowly and gently lowered his aircraft, extended the landing gears, and landed on the only patch of space he could find that wasn't occupied by deck chairs or people.

Then his hands zipped around the controls as he shut down systems and began automated post-flight checks. "Stay here.", he instructed to Cissie as he opened the canopy and exited the craft.

"What am I, five?", she asked in vein as he left.

Upon stepping foot onto the pool deck and rooftop, Red X began to casually stroll past various startled and curious Japanese women. He gave each of them a nod or a greeting like "Ladies".

He walked right up to the one woman who wasn't at all startled or surprised by his arrival, in fact, she was still laying in her deck chair, wearing only a black bikini and sunglasses over her closed eyes.

She presumably opened her eyes and glanced at Red X. "Well…", she said in a sultry and smooth voice as she took off her glasses. "If it isn't Red X? You're looking well.", Blackfire said.

"I could say the same thing about you, toots.", Red X said as he quickly glanced over her. "But I'm not here for a social visit."

"Aww, such a shame. And we just finished a nice little party."

Red X glanced over his shoulder at the table of empty bottles and drained punch bowls. "I'll say." He turned back. "Send me an invite ahead of time next time."

"So to what do I owe the pleasure?", she said with a bit of excess manners and etiquette.

Blackfire, since being banished from her own home planet, had found herself quite content charming and conning the various upper classes. Her con games and escapades had led her on several lavish adventures. Despite that, her and X always seemed to have some way to stay in contact. She was a good informant for Red X, and she always gunning in one way or another for Red X… or his bank account. Red X himself was never sure which she wanted more.

"I have a favor to ask ya, Blackfire. I need information."

"Blackfire!", Cissie said as she instantly shot up awkwardly in her seat, a little to far to the right, and she clumsily slipped and fell out of the cockpit, down the side of the craft, and strait onto the pavement of the pool deck. "Umph!"

Red X had looked back beyond his shoulder as he and Blackfire watched Cissie clumsily make a fool of herself. X's eyebrows hug heavy over his unamused features, even through the mask.

Cissie picked herself up quickly and continued to march strait over to Red X and Blackfire. "That's Blackfire?!", she asked. "That evil sister of Starfire? I thought that was just a tabloid myth!"

Blackfire was quiet, then she turned to X with a tilt of her head and said, "Who's the twirp? Business bad enough that you're babysitting now?"

"Not exactly…", Red X looked off to the side with a tinge of fatigue and annoyance in his voice. "It's a long long story." He looked back at her. "Might wanna tell your friends to go home.", he referred to all the very confused Japanese women behind them who were all gibbering to each other in Japanese.

Blackfire nodded, then sat up in her seat. She opened her mouth and shouted something in fluent Japanese. Then she winked at her friends, pointed to the door, and said something else slightly smoother in Japanese.

Red X nodded to the girls with a few raises of his eyebrows and said two short words in Japanese.

Some of the girls giggled and a few others replied. "Hai!" was the only word that Cissie could pick out of the excited Japanese gibberish.

As the girls began to leave, Cissie turned to X and Blackfire. "You two speak Japanese?"

"Eh. I can get by.", Red X shrugged. Then he pointed to Blackfire with a crooked thumb. "Tamaranians can speak any language by kissing someone who knows that language."

Cissie blinked. "You serious?" She paused. "Just… How many people does that mean you've kissed?"

"I can speak Tamaranian, Irken, English, French, Spanish, Russian, Portuguese, Japanese, Italian, Greek, and Turkish.", Blackfire said proudly with a smile.

"Turkish?", Red X asked. "That one's new."

Cissie was close to twitching.

Blackfire turned back to Red X. "So ignoring the girl scout here…", Blackfire said, referring to Cissie. "You said you had a reason for crashing my pool party?"

"Yeah. Last time you were in Russia, did you hear anything about a Fabergé Egg called the _Danish Jubilee_?", Red X asked.

"Hmm…" Blackfire looked off to the side and tapped her chin with a delicately manicured finger. "I might have heard something somewhere about it…" She looked back to X with a flirty smirk.

"How much?", X simply asked.

"Oh I'm not a selfish woman, Red…"

Red X paused, then he withdrew a diamond bracelet from a compartment on his utility belt.

Cissie raised an eyebrow. "That a money belt now?"

They both ignored that as Blackfire gently took the bracelet and examined it.

"It's worth more then you'd think. It was on an expedition ship to some island in the Caribbean a long time ago. Ship sunk and some jewelry was recovered, restored, and put into a museum."

"I love a good story.", Blackfire said as she fastened the ancient and restored bracelet to her wrist. "The _Danish Jubilee_ went missing in 1903, or at least that's the official story. It sat gathering dust in the winter cabin of some Russian mob boss in some dinky little village in Siberia, Russia. Then sometime in the Cold War the town got practically vaporized. No one knows why." Blackfire looked back up at X. "Or at least that's what Argo told me when I was his escort to an Oprah. If you're egg is anywhere, it'd be somewhere around there. But it might be scrambled by the time you get to it."

"Hmm…", Red X mused.

Cissie couldn't help but feel a small storm of jealous and contempt rise in her gut, and she hadn't the faintest clue why. But maybe it was the way Blackfire, in all her feminine perfection and goddess-like aura, was helpful to Red X. More helpful then Cissie herself felt.

"Not much to go by… I think I might have an idea now… Thanks, toots." He turned to Cissie. "We're blowing this place now. Let's go."

Cissie and Red X turned and began to walk off back to the X-Jet, as Cissie had named it, when Blackfire called out.

"Make sure you get the twerp back before her curfew!", followed by a giggle.

Cissie seemed to swell with anger, her muscles tight and her teeth gritted.

"Just drop it.", Red X advised her as he jumped effortlessly back into his plane.

-X-

Hours later.

Cissie woke up from a small nap as X's aircraft fought a little turbulence before landing in the deep snow. Cissie looked around and saw dense forest directly next to them and falling snow darting across in the wind.

"Nice weather.", she comment.

Suddenly X reached back and threw her a thick leather jacket.

Cissie examined the jacket curiously. "Wow, nice jacket.", she said as she slid it on over the hoodie she was already wearing.

"Keep it. I got a dozen.", X said, then with a yank he opened the cockpit canopy.

A burst of icy, chilling, biting, and gnawing wind instantly assaulted Cissie's face and cheeks. She shivered once immediately and lifted the hood of her hoodie over her face. "You sure this is enough to keep me warm?"

"You're welcomed to stay in the jet.", X said as he began to crawl out of his seat. "Just don't touch anything."

Cissie signed and began to exit the craft too.

-X-

The wind was cruel and bit even through X's suit. He grasped his shoulders and tried to rub his arms, knowing full well he should rub his chest instead and let his arms take care of themselves. "J- Just hang in there. An- Another couple hundred feet and… And we'll be close the village.", he said, intending to speak to Cissie who had been behind him last he checked. "Then- Then we can barter… For more clothes and gear."

Red X cursed himself for not including more winter-wear in the ship. But he hadn't exactly been planning on going all the way to North Russia. _Stupid…_, X thought to himself._ It's a Fabergé Egg… Where else would it be?_

He expected to hear some kind of complaint from Cissie, or at least a moan, but he heard nothing.

X stopped his march through the snowing wind, and turned around. Forest was all around him still, but he didn't see Cissie King-Jones anyway.

"I told you! Qui- Quit h-hugging the snow!", he stuttered through the cold. "It's… Not was w-warm as you think!" No reply came. "… Cissie?" A pause. "Hello?" Nothing replied.

Cissie was gone. Lost somewhere in the thick snow.

Red X growled to himself, and savored the warm exhaled air trapped between his face and his mask. _I swear… I'm gonna put a leash on that girl._

Red X squatted close to the ground and tugged his cape tightly around him and tried to garnish and trap as much precious body heat as he could. He withdrew his own X-themed grey communicator, a grey spoof of the Titan's own, and tried to pinpoint the signal from the communicator X had given Arrowette so long ago…

-X-

_BANG! BANG…! BANG…!_

X's fist pounded on the hard steel door of a small fortress he had found in the middle of the Siberian forest. A fortress he had traced Arrowette's signal too.

After a moment, the large steel door slid open and a large man covered head to two in the proper winter wear looked down upon Red X. The man reached up and removed his hood, revealing a face with small eyes and a very square jaw. A cap covered his ears and what might have been short cut red hair.

"Hi. Ya wouldn't happen to have a blonde girl tucked away in there, by any chance, would ya?", Red X asked. "Or speak English for that matter?"

The large man smiled. "Yes.", he said in English but with a thick Russian accent.

-X-

Cissie King-Jones sat in a chair, wrapped in layers and layers of blankets and holding a mug of some sort of hot drink in her hands.

Red X was standing before her, his cape smoothing draped over him, and hoping the cape would conceal any shivers he had just looking at her warm drink.

Cissie's mysterious hero, stood near politely allowing his guests to continue their conversation.

"…And then I looked back and you were gone.", Cissie said somewhat angrily at Red X. "Then I met this guy and he took me back here and fixed me up.", she said with a smile as she held up her warm drink for another sip.

Red X turned to the large man. "And you are…?"

"Forgive my rudeness.", he said in strained English. "I would be called… Red Star."

"Red Star, huh?", Red X said, experimenting with the name and letting it roll off the tip of his tongue.

"And… Who are you?", Red Star asked.

"Red X.", the thief said as he extended a hand to shake with. "Professional lion tamer"

Cissie almost slapped her face.

Red Star was fooled and took his hand to shake it. "It is pleasure to meet you, Red X. But you will find no lions here."

"Clumsy me." Then the thief looked around the inside of the small metal fortress. "Nice place ya got here, Red Star."

"Thank you. I live here. For many years now."

"Must get lonely.", Cissie said sadly.

"Yes… But… I am strong. I survive.", he said somberly.

Red X, who hadn't stopped looking around yet, suddenly fixed his eyes on a particular something. Words chocked in his throat as his eyes grew wide.

Cissie and Red Star looked over to see what had startled the black-clad thief so much.

Red X swallowed and regained his composure quickly. "Nice egg.", he said as he pointed to the _Danish Jubilee_, which was peacefully set on display on a shelf across the room.

Cissie was surprised, and wondered if that could really be what they had been looking for.

"Oh. Yes. Thank you. I found it one day. Outside in the snow many years ago. It is very pretty, yes?", Red Star said as he walked closer to it with a sense of pride. "Sometimes… When I am lonely, I look at it."

Red X was quiet for just half a moment, before he turned around and said to Red Star, "Could you get my friend here another helping of her drink? It looks like she's ready for more."

"I am?", Cissie asked quietly.

"Of course, friends. One moment, please. I shall return with more.", Red Star said pleasantly as he walked off.

After he was gone, Red X turned to Cissie. "Jackpot!"

"That's it?! That's the egg we've been looking for?"

"That's the one!", Red X said.

"Great! Now what?"

"Now we wait. André Le Blanc will find it sooner or later. And when PePe LePew does get here, we'll be waiting."

"Wonderful."

"Then I might steal it.", Red X said with a chuckle.

"Oh come on, X… He's been really nice to me. And he's all alone here. Don't you have any decency?"

"Nope."

Suddenly, a cry of agony could be heard from elsewhere in the fortress. Sounded like Red Star.

Red X and Arrowette/Cissie instantly rushed off to the source of the cry. But before they could reach it, Red Star emerged from a metal doorway.

From each of his hands hung a large glass canister of thick red fluid. They caught Red X's eye.

"Excuse me, friends!", Red Star said, seeming somewhat embarrassed. "A… Chore I most perform first. Then I will get your drink. Excuse me." He rushed off with the canisters.

Red X followed him anyway and Cissie was in tow.

Red Star soon led them to another room, and what was inside stunned Red X and made his sticky fingers almost tremble with excitement.

The large room was filled with canisters and canisters of the red glowing liquid. Shelves from floor to ceiling were filled with row after row of canister, several layers thick on the sturdy shelves.

"It is… Something I must do often.", Red Star said as he put the two newest canisters up on a shelf and pushed them back away from the edge. "I have powers. Too much, I'm afraid. More then I can contain. They are more of a curse." He turned to both of them. "It is why I must stay here, alone. So I don't hurt anyone."

"That's… Kinda sad, Red Star.", Cissie said.

"Yes, maybe. But I am strong.", Red Star said victoriously. "Now I get you your drink, hmm?"

"Thanks.", Cissie nodded as Red Star walked past her and exited the room. Cissie looked over at Red X. "What's with you."

Red X was looking around the room like a child in a toy store for the first time. "Do you have any idea what this crud is?" His head whipped from one direction to the other, with wide eyes soaking in as much information as they possibly could.

"No. Do you?"

Red X walked closer to a canister and touched it with his fingers. "I'm not sure, yet… But…" He looked at Cissie. "I think this stuff's Zynothium!"

"You serious?!"

Red X went back to examining the canisters. "I'll know for sure if I run some tests… But it looks like this stuff is diluted and raw Zynothium. Hmm… Ya know, with a few more pieces of lab equipment, I'm betting I could purify and refine this stuff into pure Zynothium. Good enough to use. Think maybe a single canister would end up making a full vial of Zynothium." Red X then cackled mischievously to himself and turned to Cissie. "I'll never have to steal Zynothium again!"

"That's great!", Cissie said, hoping it meant less crimes committed by Red X.

"I'll have my own private stash hidden right here in the snow! I could power my suit and all my stuff for a lifetime!"

Cissie was suddenly deflated. "That's not great..."

Red X cackled quietly to himself as his mind raced, thinking and calculating all the possibilities a virtually unlimited supply of Zynothium might present.

Then an explosion was heard from somewhere else in the fortress, the loud report reverberated off the thick metal walls and echoed over and over.

"What now?!", Red X said as he and Cissie rushed out of the room with the red liquid.

Smoke rose into the air faintly, which led the thief and the "missing" heroine back into the room where the _Danish Jubilee_ had been. They both skid on their heels to a stop when they entered the room.

"Mwa! Ha ha ha ha!", André Le Blanc laughed as he snatched up the _Danish Jubilee_ in his hands.

A huge hole was left in the wall, exposing much piping and wires and ripped tatters of bent steel or lead. Red Star lay under a large steel beam that had fallen upon him, no doubt pried loose by Le Blanc and a well-thrown TNT stick.

"You! Red X? What an unexpected surprise.", Le Blanc said. "And is zat your girlfriend, hmm?" He chuckled to himself.

"Le Blanc…", Red X said through gritting teeth behind his mask. Then he set a hand on Cissie's shoulder, and shoved her back into the corridor.

"Umph!", Cissie cried on impact. She _hoped _X only did so Le Blanc wouldn't get a good look at her.

Le Blanc chuckled to himself again as he proudly held the _Danish Jubilee_ in his hands. "I guess not."

"Look… I didn't come here for the Egg, Le Blanc." , Red X said. "I came here because I got a lot of questions and you _better _have answers!" He withdrew his hand and pointed sharply at Le Blanc in an over-dramatic motion.

"Oo ha ha! So sorry, Monsieur X!", Le Blanc leaped onto the edge of the hole that was blown away from the wall. "But you are, as you say… To late!"

Red X shot out his other hand and fired an x of some sort… But it was too late. André Le Blanc jumped out the hole just in time and the x flew off into the snowing wind.

"Oh, no you don't!", Red X ran towards the hole and climbed up into it.

"Wait! X!", Cissie cried.

X perched himself on the edge of the hole and looked back.

Cissie was knelt next to Red Star. "X! We gotta help him!", she said as Red Star stirred.

"No. I am fine.", Red Star said. Then in one motion he shoved himself to his feet, and the steel beam on his back flew across the room like a twig, where it later crashed against a wall with a deafeningly loud crash.

Red X paused. "He's fine."

"No… He took my it…", Red Star said sadly as he looked to the empty spot where the _Danish Jubilee_ had once been. His large shoulders seemed to hunch with a weight greater then he himself could lift.

"We'll get it back. He couldn't have gotten to far by now!", Cissie said next to Red Star, pleading for him to grow hopeful again.

Red Star shook his head sadly. "No, it is no good." He pointed to the wall and the various severed pipes all around Red X. "The power conduit may have been damaged. I must repair the damage soon. Otherwise… Could leak. It must be repaired first." He hung his head just slightly lower. "I cannot go find my egg again."

That's when a wonderful idea popped into Red X's mind. "How about a deal?"

Red Star and Cissie looked over at him.

"Deal?", Red Star asked.

"I'll go get your egg back." X pointed to himself with a crooked thumb. "And in return? I can help myself to those jars of red stuff whenever I want."

"They are dangerous, my friend.", Red Star warned.

"You're not doing anything with them, and I can properly dispose of them.", Red X said.

"But, how? You are lion tamer.", Red Star said.

Red X paused. Then he looked at Cissie. "She's a nuclear physicist."

"I'm what?!"

"Hmm…" Red Star glanced over at the egg's empty spot it's shelf, then looked back to Red X. "Yes. We have a deal."

"Great.", Red X said enthusiastically.

"But, please… Bring it back unharmed.", Red Star said somberly. "I don't have very many pretty things to look at."

X nodded. "I'll see what I can do." Then he dived out the gaping hole, and out into the frigid wind and snow.

Red Star looked over at Cissie. "You are nuclear physicist, yes? You can help me repair the power conduit?"

Cissie smiled nervously. "Uh… I think I better help lion tamer over there. Wait up, X!", she ran off, grabbed a coat off a hook on the wall, and eagerly chased after Red X and Le Blanc.

Outside, Red X ran through the snow. At first the biting cold air was brisk, but X knew he couldn't exert himself for too long. Exercise for body heat could only work for so long when running through such a thick cold.

He reached into his belt and withdrew his communicator. "Y- Yo! Get your butt-t over to R-Russia right now.", he stuttered into the communicator. "And- And bring extra jackets!"

-X-

André Le Blanc, in his white winter coat, blended easily in with the snow. But with Red X's infrared monocular, the French thief stood out like a candle in a dark basement.

And just as the French thief passed by a tree, a red shuriken hit it and awkwardly bounced off of the bark.

André Le Blanc turned around and saw Red X standing behind him atop a fallen over tree truck. "Your aim is off, Monsieur X." He still held the _Danish Jubilee_ tight in his hands, so confident that he would not drop it.

"Sticky fingers." Red X clutched his cold fists, cursing the winter for numbing his fingertips already and screwing up his normally precise marksmanship. "I'll make this q-quick. Give back the egg… Or I turn you inside out. _T-Then_ I'll ask you a few questions."

"You?" Le Blanc scoffed to himself, and then touched the chest of his thick white jacket with one hand. "I am toasty warm, and you are stuttering to make but a threat. How will you get it from me?" He held up the _Danish Jubilee_ on display. "It is mine."

Red X held up one cold hand, and as if by magic, a red shuriken flicked into his palm from inside his gloved forearm. He held the hand across and over his other shoulder, cocked and ready to throw.

"You wouldn't.", Le Blanc said. "You'd risk destroying zee egg!"

"That's what I'm aiming at…" Red X leaned forward and threw the x-shuriken.

The four-pronged blade flew past Le Blanc's chest and sliced the fabric on the thick sleeves of his jacket. Startled and afraid of his arm's tendons being cut, Le Blanc recoiled away and accidentally let go of the egg. "No!", he yelped.

The _Danish Jubilee_ fell closer to the ground in what seemed to be slow motion. It would surely be damaged, if not completely shatter, against even the soft snow. If they were really unlucky there'd be rocks or roots below the snow that would make the _Danish Jubilee_ nothing but shining pieces.

Then, a red blur darted under the _Danish Jubilee_, and red-gloved hand gently caught it without even one American cent's worth of damage done.

Kid Flash laid stomach down in the cold snow, after having dived for the precious egg, which he held gently in his hand. "Hiya. You remember me?", he said.

"Sacrebleu?!", Le Blanc said in French as he flinched back. "Kid Flash?!"

"And now… _You talk._", Red X said past a deaf glare.

Le Blanc looked horrified from Red X, to Kid Flash, to the egg, then all over again. Then… He looked to Red X and shrugged. "Eh. Sei La Vie." Then he quickly reached into his pocket, and pulled out a fogger bomb. He detonated it and threw it on the ground, where it quickly sprayed out a rather large amount of gas that quickly filled and fogged the area in thick gas.

Kid Flash quickly rolled out of the snow and zipped away, skidding to a stop next to Red X with the _Danish Jubilee_ still in his hands.

Red X held up his hand to try and swat away the ever-growing cloud of gas or smoke. "Clear all this stuff away!", he said to Kid Flash.

"What? How am I supposed to do that?!"

"Spin your arm around like a propeller. Blow it away.", X said as the gas got thicker.

"I can't do that!" He paused. "Can I?" Kid Flash switched the _Danish Jubilee_ to his left hand, held up his right arm, and began moving his arm in a wide circular motion. Then it got faster and faster and faster until…

A rush of wind moved past Kid Flash's head and towards his arm, and he was amazed. He adjusted the exact shape and position of his hand and elbow, and suddenly the gust became stronger. The hurricane-like gust rushed forward away from Kid Flash, and quickly blew the thick smoke-like gas back.

"Wow! It works!", Kid Flash exclaimed.

The gas rushed backwards, pushed by the sudden wind created by Kid Flash. André Le Blanc was gone though, or at least he was for a moment before a loud and constant chopping noise could be heard.

From beyond the treetops, André Le Blanc could be seen clinging for dear life to a rope latter that hung from a helicopter.

"Hurry, Benjamin! Let us make our get-away!", Le Blanc yelled to the pilot as he climbed the rope latter into the helicopter.

"My name's Jim!!!", the pilot yelled back as the helicopter rose into the air and flew off.

Kid Flash looked to Red X, who was wrapping his cape tighter around his cold body. "Aren't we gonna chase them? …Or something?"

Red X looked over to Kid Flash out of the corner of his eyes. "Can you fly?"

"No." He paused. "I don't think so…" Kid Flash looked at his right hand in puzzlement, and began to wonder…

-X-

Later that night.

Red X's jet suddenly took off in a hurry, carrying both Red X and a warmer Cissie King-Jones with it. And both were thankful to wear the proper winter wear that Kid Flash had brought.

"You sure it was a good idea to leave Kid Flash and Red Star together?", Cissie asked.

"A home-bred American boy like Kid Flash and a kind hearted communist super-powered battery like Red Star?", Red X said as he adjusted the controls and continued to sore upwards. "I'm sure they'll get along fine…"

"We are gonna visit him again, right?", Cissie asked sadly, honestly feeling sympathy for Red Star.

"Sure are. Lots."

"Promise?", Cissie asked.

"Promise." X chuckled, enjoying the warmth brought to him by his new thick black jacket. "Whenever I go to pick up Zynothium…"

"So what now? How will we find Le Blanc now?", Cissie asked.

"This makes two botched jobs in a row for him.", Red X said. "He'll be desperate for a successful heist and to repair his reputation. He won't be too hard to find again."

"If you say-", Cissie began, but was interrupted by the sound of her cell phone ringing. "I get cell phone reception here?!"

Red X cocked and eyebrow up high. "Which network are you on? I'm so switching now."

Cissie clawed around the inside of her duffle bag under her small seat while her annoyingly cheery ring tone continued to blare away. "A ha! There you are." Cissie withdrew the cell phone and looked at what the Caller ID had to display. "You're kidding me!"

"Who is it?", Red X asked, turning his head around enough to look at her over his shoulder. "The guy who ransomed your identity again?" He secretly feared, and hoped, it would be him.

"Worse.", Cissie said, holding the phone closed and allowing it to continue it's annoying ring tone. "It's my mom. She must've heard Arrowette was missing."

Red X paused, turned back around, and then sighed to himself. "Couldn't it have been another ransom demand…?"

-X-

Meanwhile.

Red Star sat at a sparse foldable table and chair, and sipped on a spoonful of Solyanka soup. He lowered his empty spoon back into the bowl, and looked on at his dinner guest. "Something wrong with your Botvinya, new friend?"

Kid Flash, on the other end of the table, was desperately scarping his tongue with his gloved hand as his eyes began to water. "Too… Much… Horseradish…!", he exhaled weakly. Then he picked up his glass of water and began drinking as quickly as he could.

Red Star chuckled warmly. "My mistake. I make it better next time." Then he looked over to the _Danish Jubilee_, which was properly placed back on its shelf. He smiled to himself as it twinkled in the light.

It was cold in Siberia. But at least, it was pretty sometimes.

"ACK…!", Kid Flash chocked. "More water…!"

………………………………………………………………………………...

Author's Note: Ya know what? I don't care how long my chapters are anymore. … Mostly.

Sorry it took me a bit to update. I had a serious itch to finish _Under The Hood_. (So hurry up and review it so I can feel good about myself again.)

I liked writing Red Star. I love how he talks. And it was neat to put him in this story because him and André Le Blanc were archenemies in the comics. Also, Red Star didn't get along too well with Kid Flash, for reasons that Red X commented abstractly on. Maybe I'll get to play up on those old relationships more later.

The _Danish Jubilee_ is a real Fabergé Egg that really did go missing in 1903. Everything else beyond that is fictional. The bracelet that Red X gave to Blackfire is also completely fictional as far as I know.

Geez, it's amazing how popular Pet Rock is! He was supposed to be a gag I threw into _Once A Thief_ at the last moment, but all the women who I talk to freaken' _love_ him! And because my fans love him so much, I'll try to give Pet Rock more and more cameo appearances.

Zephyr Zucchini: As far as you and the Pet Rock seeing each other… I don't mind, but fair warning, you might not be first in line. You have competition!

Isa Lumitus: Yes. That last line was just for you and God of Static.

God of Static: No, you didn't offend me at all. I just wanted to poke fun of my misuse of the word.

Next up on Red X's world tour… Amsterdam! … That's right.


	4. Red Red Amsterdam

"Enjoy when you can, and endure when you must." -Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

………………………………………………………………………………...

"Le Blanc said Red X was waiting for him in Siberia. A woman and Kid Flash too.", Ross Malverk said into his cell phone. He stood on the rear deck of a beach house somewhere on the East Coast, judging by the gentle waves lapping against the long smooth shore. "He's worried Red X is catching on and trying to hunt us down. Frankly, so am I."

"I figured he might try something like this.", said the young and angry sounding person on the other end of the phone. "He's tracking Le Blanc down by those stupid announcements of his. Always declaring his next heist in one way or another."

"I know. But I can't convince him to give it up. Something about showmanship, he said. It took me a practical fortune before he agreed to keep the _Heart Of Eternity_ heist a secret.", Ross replied.

The person on the other end of the phone sighed audibly. "Such an idiot… But don't worry too much; I have a plan for this. Have Le Blanc announce a heist somewhere. When X tracks him down, I'll have a trap ready. Leave it to me."

"I doubt his 'showmanship' will let him announce a fake heist."

"Tell him it's that, or Red X mounts him on a wall."

"And you'll do the rest?", Ross asked.

"Yes. Tell that French moron to announce a heist in…" The young sounding man at the end of the line paused, as if thinking to himself. "…De Wallen."

Ross Malverk paused. "Amsterdam?", he asked. "You want to send them all to Amsterdam?"

"Yes, I said. Just do it. Call me with updates.", then the young man on the other end of the line hung up, punching the red button on his own cell phone with his thumb. Then the young man sat in his chair in his bedroom in his father's large house, and turned to his laptop.

He began typing and clicking away at his computer, until the circular T-Shield of the Teen Titans appeared on the screen.

-X-

One day later.

"Titans…", Robin said. He stood up inside the living room of Titans Tower, in front of the rest of the Teen Titans _and_ the Titans East. "I'll go ahead and go over this again, now that we're all here, just so no one's confused. Yesterday, we received a short message from Arrowette, who as you know, is missing.", he said. "Cyborg?"

Cyborg inserted a data probe from the tip of his finger into a port on a computer console. A short message was displayed on the screen. "We received this simple text transmission."

The message on the screen read simply… "Robin, it's Arrowette. Red X kidnapped me. De Wallen, Amsterdam."

Robin began again. "Obviously… Arrowette had to sneak in this message to us somehow. It's safe to assume she wanted to look for her in Amsterdam. That might be where Red X is keeping her."

Speedy raised his hand as he lay lazily and half asleep on the couch. "One question: Can we quit playing FBI and go get 'em already?!", he asked in a disgruntled manor, as he crossed his arms in contempt.

"Hold up there, Speedy…", Aqualad said. "Something's bothering me. Kidnapping isn't exactly in Red X's M.O. How do you explain that, Robin?"

"I admit… Kidnapping's definitely not his M.O.", Robin admited. "But taking care of himself_ is_ his M.O.", he said more sternly. "Arrowette's been trying to catch Red X ever since he stole Zynothium from Star City. It's possible she got lucky and stumbled on one of X's best kept secrets."

"…So Red X kidnapped her to keep her from talking?", Bumblebee asked.

Robin nodded. "It's a possibility."

"Personally…", Speedy began. "I don't think it matters if it's Red X's M.O.!", he exclaimed as he uncrossed his arms. "X has Arrowette. That's good enough for me. I say we quit standing around and get down to Amsterdam already!"

Cyborg and Raven both raised an eyebrow.

"Taking this a little personally, Speedy? You alright?", Cyborg asked.

"Fine.", Speedy said very curtly as he leaned back into the couch.

Mas y Menos poked their heads up from beyond the back of the couch. "¿Como estas, Senior Speedy?", they asked as Mas poked his shoulder curiously.

"Arrowette's…", Bumblebee began, trying to put it delicately. "…A friend of the family.", she said while pointing her thumb at Speedy, the only other _archery_ based hero around at present.

"I know the feeling.", Robin said simply, not betraying any empathy in his voice beyond what his words alone merely gave. "We'll find her.", he said with resolve, looking directly at Speedy.

And as if Robin had been able to communicate to Speedy on an entirely different level… Speedy exhaled through his nose and nodded back. Robin understood him, and understood how he felt. Robin understood what kind of family Speedy hailed from. The message was clear and had been delivered.

And that was good enough for Speedy, for now anyway.

Starfire looked on at Speedy with some concern, then she looked across at Robin and Cyborg, who stood up in front of them all. "What about friend Arrowette?", she asked. "She has come to no harm?"

"Anything's possible with Red X.", Robin said spitefully.

Slade or Brother Blood aside, Red X was arguably Robin biggest and most elusive enemy. And the fact that Robin had created Red X only compounded and magnified his determination to catch the super-thief, as well as his malice towards him.

"But…" Robin paused. "…If Arrowette sent that message, it means she's still alive and Red X hasn't crossed that line yet.", he said with a more gentle consideration. "To date, he's never crossed that line."

That was the thing about Red X. He could steal just about anything, but to date he had never stolen… life. As much as Robin didn't like to admit it, Red X could be _a lot_ worse given his skills and the suit's abilities.

"Yeah. That and… He might still be the only one who knows where she is.", Cyborg added after a beat. "So keep that in mind when we find him and kick some butt.", he said a bit more upbeat.

All the Titans nodded at Cyborg's final note.

Bumblebee stood up. "Alright, then! We're going to Amsterdam." She turned to the rest of her team. "Come on, let's get going."

"Woo hoo! Road trip!", Beast Boy squealed. "What's in Amsterdam anyway?"

Raven leaned over and whispered something into his ear.

Beast Boy's eyes went wide and his lip tight. "Oh.", he said quickly.

-X-

The next day.

Well, despite all the rumors, legends, and jokes about this place… De Wallen, Amsterdam was interestingly lit. Not well lit, but interestingly lit. Shades of whites and oranges, and especially reds, glowed all around and covered anything not deep in shadows a shade of red.

How fitting that Red X had dragged Cissie King-Jones to this place.

Currently, Cissie leaned on her arm and stared out the window at the city below their well-furbished hotel room. She was only trying to distract herself from her own upcoming difficulty, namely her mother coming.

Bonnie King had been the original Miss Arrowette, and after developing carpel-tunnel syndrome and thoroughly discovering she was a terrible hero, retired. Very soon after that, she gave birth to Cissie King-Jones and began raising her daughter to follow in her footsteps. And with Cissie in a laughably ridiculous costume, Arrowette was created again.

"It made you look more like a princess or like a contestant in a children's beauty pageant then a superhero.", Red X had once commented about her first costume. "Seriously, where did your mom find so much _glitter?!_"

But thanks to Kid Flash and Child Services, _that _grand vision hadn't lasted long before Bonnie was declared unfit to raise a child.

Fast forward a few years, a first encounter with Red X, a really long story, a few more months, then another frame up involving Red X… And here Cissie King-Jones sat.

"Mom is not gonna like this place…", Cissie said as she stared out the window.

"She doesn't have to." Red X sat in a plush leather chair with his feet perched on the footrest. The remote to the TV rested firmly in his grip as he flipped through the various channels, all speaking a foreign language he didn't understand anyway.

"Why'd we come to this city, of all the cities, again?", Cissie asked as she turned back to X.

X planted his elbow in the arm of the chair and rested his cheek against his loose fist. "Because Le Blanc just so happens to want to rob a museum here. Sounds like the kinda stunt I'd pull just for kicks." He paused then mumbled, "Knockoff."

Then after a few minuets the doorbell rang.

Cissie sighed, got up, and walked over to it. "Well… Here goes." She turned to Red X. "And please try not to be too much of a jerk…"

"No promises.", Red X said cheeringly, happy to be a pain in the end.

Cissie sighed again, took a deep breath, and opened the hotel room's front door…

"Heya!", Kid Flash said as he zoomed through the door in his typical red and yellow blur.

"Oh, look, dear…", Red X said to Arrowette as he picked up a Dutch magazine and pretended to read it. "It's the paper boy, come to tell me what in the world he's doing here before I beat him with a lead pipe." He casually flipped a page.

"No need to be so harsh.", Kid Flash said, as cheeringly as always, as he came to a stop across the room. "I just came to lend Cissie some support. Her mom can be a real whack job sometimes."

"So I've heard…" Red X flipped another page, acting as if he was just as interested in reading a magazine he couldn't read as listening to Kid Flash.

"Thanks, Kid Flash.", Cissie said as she closed the door again and locked it. "X here isn't being a big help.", she said, not disguising any displeasure.

"Hey, do I look like a talk show host?", X defended.

"Alright alright…", Kid Flash held up his hands gently. "Why don't I cook up some popcorn and make some sandwiches? Couldn't hurt."

"Thanks, Scarecrow. I'll help.", Cissie walked into the kitchen as Kid Flash zipped past her.

"I like mine with extra mustard!", Red X called out as he flipped another page.

-X-

"Man, what's with skull-face out there?", Kid Flash asked in his usual up-beat tone as he zipped around the kitchen so fast he seemed to be working at three places at once.

"He can probably hear you, ya know.", Cissie said as she sliced some bread.

"Nope." Kid Flash appeared next to her. "I just checked, he's too busy watching a commercial in Dutch."

"He's probably defensive already.", Cissie said as she worked. "I mean, as soon as my mom comes he'll be the first throat she goes for. Can't say I blame 'em. I'm kinda jumpy too."

Then the doorbell rang again.

"Not expecting anymore superheroes, are we?", Red X said as he finally got off his rump.

"Not that I know of…", Cissie said deflated from the kitchen.

"Well…" Red X said as he marched to the door. "Might as well get this over with." He walked up to the door and pressed his face against the door to look through the peephole.

Through the circular view port, X could clearly see Bonnie King standing outside. Her hair was put up into some sort of messy bun, she had a cigarette in her mouth, and she even wore a sparkling mask over her face…

_You gotta be kidding me…_ "You alone?", he asked through the door.

Outside, Bonnie glanced to her left and to her right. "Yeah. No one's around.", she said seriously, probably taking herself too seriously too.

As Cissie and Kid Flash exited the kitchen and approached, Red X unlocked the door, turned the doorknob, and began to open the door. And as soon as the door was barely open…

An archer's bow swung down and slammed into Red X's masked face.

"Oof!", was what escaped Red X's lips.

Next Bonnie King tackled her way through the doorway and tackled the dizzy Red X to the ground. "Where is she?!", she said as she tried to pres the bow against X's throat.

"Ack!", Red X instantly reached up and try to pry away the bow and the insane woman on top of him. "She's right over there, you moron! Ack! Somebody give me a hand here! Kid Flash!"

"On it!", Kid Flash zipped past the two of them, closed and triple locked the door, zipped back and took Bonnie off of Red X and set her on the couch. Then he zipped back to Red X and ran him over to his chair. Then he grabbed Cissie and set her next to her own mother. Then he ran into the kitchen in a flash, gathered all the food, then zipped around and set all the food neatly on a coffee table in front of the couch and chair. Next he even served drinks, their soda not even getting the chance to fizz before he had set it down and ran off again. Then he darted across the room, grabbed a chair next to a desk, took it over to the rest of the group and had a seat across from the coffee table

Red X, Bonnie King, and Cissie King-Jones were still blinking and trying to figure out where they had just gone by the time Kid Flash took a seat.

"Okay…", Kid Flash said to break the ice. "So… Red X, Bonnie. Bonnie, Red X."

"We've met…", Red X said as he adjusted the cape's grip around his neck.

"Honey!", Bonnie lunged over to her daughter and hugged her tight. "You're alright!"

"Um… I'm fine…", Cissie said weakly as she was squeezed to death. "Will you get off me now…?"

Bonnie let go but held her daughter firm by the shoulders. "How are you? Did he hurt you-" Then she gasped horrified. "What are you doing without your mask on?!"

"Um…" Cissie looked away awkwardly. "About that…"

Bonnie was silent as stone. "He… Knows your secret identity?"

"I can guess her shoe size too.", Red X offered.

"Cissie…", Bonnie said serious yet horrified. "How could you let a supervillain learn your secret identity?"

"Hey, dude, you're a supervillain now. Congratulations!", Kid Flash said as he offered his hand to X to shake. "What're you gonna do now?"

"Thanks, Kid Flash!", Red X said cheerfully as he shook his hand. "I'm gonna steal the Eiffel Tower!"

Kid Flash's eyes shot wide as X continued to happily shake his hand. "Uh…"

"And you!" Bonnie took her talon-like grip off Cissie's shoulder just long enough to point at Kid Flash. "What're you doing here?! You're supposed to be a superhero too!"

"He didn't kidnap me.", Cissie said firmly as she slapped away her mother's remaining grip on her shoulder. "This is all a giant set up to frame Red X and blackmail me. Kid Flash and X are helping me figure it all out."

Bonnie paused. "You're not just saying that because _he_ knows your secret identity are you?"

Red X, laying back in his chair, rolled his eyes. "It's not like I read her diary."

"You don't even know where my diary is!", Cissie yelled to X.

"Bottom of your duffle bag. Labeled 'Math Notes'. Who brings their Math Notes on a trip like this anywhere?", Red X said.

Cissie skipped a beat. Then looked off to the side with crossed arms. "Okay so maybe you do…"

"Look, Miss K…", Kid Flash began. "I know we're not the best of friends… But it's true. I was there." He leaned forward somewhat. "Sure, Red X is a semi-womanizing no-good super-thief…"

"And proud.", X added.

"…but he actually didn't do _this_ crime."

Bonnie was quiet for only a second or so. "So… How did all this happen then?", she said. "What's going on?", she demanded.

"Well…", Red X suddenly stood. "I'm outta here.", he said as he crossed in front of the couch and to the window.

"Where're you going?", Cissie asked.

"Don't need me for story-time. Besides…" He opened the window and stet on foot on the ledge. "I actually came here to get some work done."

Red X fired his X-grapnel and disappeared beyond the window seal, swinging off somewhere outside to somewhere else.

-X-

She yelped and said something in Dutch. She was a decent looking lady; Caucasian skin with blonde hair, and dark bags under here eyes that sure wasn't eyeliner. She wore a tiny red dress and didn't carry a purse with her. And she pressed her back against the corner of the curving dirty alleyway, which she had become so familiar with.

The man that seemed to tower over her was dressed much better, with pressed slacks and a leather jacket. He seemed to be yelling something at her in Dutch.

While fighting off panic and desperate to keep some self-respect, the woman never the less reached into her leather boot and withdrew a wad of money. And she gave wad of crumpled money to the man.

He greedily took it, muttering something else as he counted it.

Suddenly the one light around, a simple lamp next to a backdoor, shattered. And the alleyway behind the man was instantly bathed in pitch and inescapable blackness.

The man instantly turned around upon the shattering sound and stared at where the light had once been, then he jerked his head to look behind him and into the darkness.

A skull materialized inside the darkness and stared back at him.

Before the man could utter a single word, _something_ pulled him quickly and without mercy into the darkness in the blink of an eye.

The woman backed up tighter against the wall as the sounds of a struggle could be heard beyond the darkness of the alley. The soft thud of flesh being beaten echoed once or twice.

And then the man was suddenly ejected from the darkness, thrown really. He flew backwards and hit the ground next to the woman, holding his stomach and gasping for air, which had been wrenched from his lungs. His nose and lips were wet with a thin trail of blood that was only getting wetter.

Then the skull appeared again faintly in the shadows. It approached closer until a figure's shape could barely be seen beyond the shadows; a figure's whose head was that same glaring skull without a lower jaw.

"Looppas.", Red X said firmly to the man. Which roughly meant, "run" in Dutch.

The man got up, yelling a few phrases of gibberish, and pointing at Red X.

Red X moved his cape aside and visibly made a show of clenching his fist.

The man glared again and ran off, metaphorically with his tail between his legs and with wounds to lick.

Red X looked over impassively at the woman who was now on the floor of the alley, still tucked into that tight corner. She was saying something else in Dutch that Red X didn't understand, he only memorized a few words and phrases he thought he'd need.

Red X turned to her and held out his other hand to her. His gloved hand was loosely holding the wad of money, which he had taken from the man during the beating.

She looked up at him confused, then gingerly reached up and snatched the money.

Red X nodded to her then turned on his heel and walked off back into the shadows.

-X-

Later.

_Wadda city._ Red X perched atop of a rooftop and overlooked the city streets not too far below. _Never seen this much eye-candy in one place before. And it'll probably rot your teeth just as quick, too._ Red X glanced from one figure on the streets to the other, entertaining himself by people watching. And he had hours to kill before needing to do any real work to find Le Blanc, so why not? _Baby, that dress outgrew you years ago._

"X…"

Red X snapped his head around like it was spring loaded, and looked behind him at… Robin.

Robin, leader of the Teen Titans, stood at the other end of the rooftop with his shorter cape draped around his shoulders and arms.

"Well, well… Didn't expect to see you here.", Red X said as he comfortably turned the rest of his body around and faced Robin. "What're you doing in a town like this? Came for the view but stayed for the company?"

"I'm here for you, X.", Robin said seriously yet, somehow, somberly as well.

Red X paused. "Well, Robin, I'm flattered, but…", Red X glanced off to the side. "But I just signed a lease on my new apartment, and that's a commitment I just can't walk away from.", Red X looked back, satisfied with his sarcasm.

"Arrowette.", Robin said.

"Oh.", Red X said differently, with a quiet and disappointed understanding. Then he narrowed his eyes and firmly, and seriously, spoke. "Listen… I've done a lot of things and broke a lot of laws. But not this one. It wasn't me."

"We have you on tape, X." Robin began to step forward, but not in a threatening manor. This was the last chance for negotiations. "I watched you drag her off by the hair."

"It wasn't me!", Red X spat out. And he backed up somewhat against the ledge of the rooftop. "The tape was faked! I was framed."

Robin stood quietly with nothing to say.

"I don't know how yet… And I don't expect you to buy a single word of this.", Red X stated in his defense. "But that's the truth and I ain't going down for something that, for once, I didn't even do. So ya might as well make the first move, Birdy…"

"That's your call.", Robin said. He obviously wasn't energetically happy to finally take down Red X like this. Ideally, Robin wanted to track X down himself, and cuff the thief himself. But… Robin slowly reached into his belt and withdrew a freeze disk, knowing that what had to be done had to be done. "You're under arrest."

"What else is new?" Red X asked. Then he suddenly flipped backwards and dived over the edge of rooftop.

…

"Agh!" Suddenly, with a green flash, Red X was blasted back up onto the rooftop. He landed on the asphalt rooftop with a thud, and picked himself off the floor just in time to see…

Every single Titan.

Robin. Cyborg. Beast Boy. Raven. Starfire. And… Bumblebee. Aqualad. Speedy. Mas. Menos.

The ten superheroes stood in a ring around Red X, spreading out across the rooftop, onto the adjacent rooftops, and the flying members hovering in the air behind him.

"Well…", Red X said as he stood up. "Ain't this just swell…"

"Last chance, X.", Robin said as he held his freeze disk.

"If I had a nickel for every time I've heard_ that _line." And then Red X disappeared, his image blurring and phasing out of focus.

Instantly, Cyborg jumped to a slightly higher elevation and switched the settings on his one mechanical eye. "Raven! Five O'Clock!"

Raven instantly spun around and fired a blast of her dark energy. A materializing Red X was pushed back and skid across the rooftop.

"Ugh… Okay, who's the magician?!", X said as he grunted, getting back up on his feet. 'Least he wasn't surrounded anymore, barely.

"We got you all figured out!" Cyborg shouted out as he pointed to his eye.

"Cyborg's eye can be set to scan on sub-harmonic frequencies.", Bumblebee said smugly as she hovered a bit closer with that annoying buzz of hers. "He can spot you even when you go invisible."

Red X paused. "Bummer." Then he threw up his cape and reached into his belt.

"Titans!", Robin ordered.

Red X threw a smoke bomb at his feet, and a cloud of thick gas erupted around him and disguised him. Then a swarm of some bombs shot forth in every direction, as if at least one was aimed at each superhero.

The rooftop was flooded in smoke and thick gas instantly, with a black shape swiftly darting in and out of the clouds.

"Cyborg! Infrared!", Robin shouted as he held up his freeze disk ready in defense.

"I'm on it!" Cyborg's eye switched to a different shade of red, as his vision was bathed in a sea of blues and reds and yellows. "I think I see him!", Cyborg said as he stared at a figure which darted around low the ground. "He's-" And then all Cyborg saw was a red-hot x flying strait at him.

The warm goo-x had shined red on Cyborg's infrared, a wonderful irony, and then wrapped around his face.

"Agh! I'm out! I'm blind!", Cyborg shouted.

Then Red X materialized in front of Raven, shocking even her. X didn't spare her a pick up line as he slapped an x directly over her forehead, and she had no time utter a spell or send him to another dimension as the x on her head shocked away at her. As X disappeared again into the smoke, Raven fell unconscious to the ground.

"Cyborg! Raven!", Robin shouted into the thick fog. "Titans! On your guard!"

Then a red shuriken spun from the smoke and embedded itself in Robin's utility belt's buckle.

Mas y Menos sputtered something in Spanish as they started running around in a circle, creating a whirlwind to clear away the smoke.

Each Titan looked around the clearing smoke for any sign of X. And there he was. Shrouded by his tattered cape in the middle of the rooftop. The thief held up his hand and fired one last goo-x at the Mas y Menos.

With Mas y Menos spinning around so fast in a whirlwind, the goo quickly entangled them to the rooftop like gum caught in a cotton candy machine. The end result was Mas caked in one clump of goo and Menos knee deep in another.

"Looks like you're in a sticky situation.", Red X smirked to himself, rubbing it in.

Then Starfire tackled him hard from behind and nearly pushed him off the rooftop.

Red X elbowed her in the upper chest, where the collarbones meet and the neck begins, and Starfire coughed while letting him go. X began to fall down the alley below next to the rooftop, and fired a long strand of X-Webbing (because copy write infringement is fun) at Starfire.

The X-Webbing stretched, slowing Red X's fall until he safely landed and stuck his end of the stand of webbing to the alley's brick wall. Then he took off again as fast as he could around the alley corner and further into the bowels of the city.

Starfire was hot on his trail again. But Red X turned right around and stood his ground as she continued to fly at him quickly.

Red X stood.

Starfire soared in determination for justice.

Then the X-webbing he stuck to her and the wall went taunt.

Starfire found herself halted just two feet away from Red X as the material stretched.

Red X waved. "Beep beep", he said of the Roadrunner.

Then the elastic X-webbing pulled Starfire away quickly, making her hit and scrape against brick walls as she disappeared down the alleyways.

Red X heard the buzz of Bumblebee approaching, and quickly disappeared just before the ground he was standing on was burnt with a blaze of yellow lightning-like blasts.

-X-

"So… Awesome sandwiches.", Kid Flash awkwardly, hoping to break the ice again.

It had been mostly quiet ever since Red X left. They had nibbled on the snacks, except for Kid Flash who had devoured half the table. Bonnie sat back with her arms crossed; staring off at the ceiling while Cissie sat and leaned on the couch's armrest, as if ashamed.

"Didn't stick to the roof of my mouth or- …or anything?", Kid Flash looked up at the two girls sadly. "Come on you two. Ya gotta say something."

There was another pause of silence, before Bonnie spoke without looking. "How can you be okay with this? A supervillain knows your secret identity!"

Cissie said nothing.

"Hey… Take it easy, alright?", Kid Flash offered.

"He could kidnap you, ransom you to any number of villains!", Bonnie continued.

"Don't you think I thought of that already?", Cissie somberly but seriously replied.

Bonnie slowly looked over. "He could blackmail you into never stopping him from doing a crime. Star City could be robbed blind and you couldn't lift a finger!"

Cissie continued to stare at the floor while leaning on the armrest, closed off and somber. "I know."

"He knows where you live." Bonnie touched her own chest with her hallowed hand. "He knows where _I_ live!"

"I know.", Cissie said.

"Probably knows more then that…", Kid Flash muttered to himself.

"Then how can you sleep at night?! How can you be so at ease?!", Bonnie leaned over and demanded of Cissie.

"Wasn't easy at first.", Cissie said as she hunched over further, staring with heavy brows at the floor.

"Then- Then- What, Cissie?! What is wrong with you?!", Bonnie said.

"Hey, easy now.", Kid Flash spoke up but was ignored.

"How can you not care if he knows who you are?! How can you be okay?! Didn't you listen to a thing I taught you?!" Bonnie paused. "How are you okay?"

"Because…" Cissie slowly sat up strait and looked strait into her mother's eyes. "I trust him."

-X-

Red X ran. And he turned he back fisted whoever was behind him, which happened to be Aqualad. Next he dived and tucked into a roll, knowing an attack would happen soon enough.

He came up and fired an x of some kind at Robin, who's bird-a-rang Red X had just dodged with his roll.

"_How can you trust him?", Bonnie asked from back at the hotel._

Red X was hit with a net from one of Speedy's arrows, and was thrown back against an alley wall.

"_He steals things, he lies to people, he's a no-good dirty thief!", Bonnie said._

"_I know that too.", Cissie said firmly. "But I've lost count of how many times he saved MY life. He saved Jump City twice!"_

X fired blasts from both his hand and quickly blasted away Robin and Aqualad through the netting. Then he put his hands together and fired another blast through the net at Speedy, who had been standing on a rooftop ledge above.

"_But didn't he say the only reason he was helping was because you owed him and he couldn't collect if you- were… six feed under…?", Kid Flash said. "I'm not helping, am I?"_

Red X tumbled into the streets with a big green wolf on his chest.

"_Well, yeah… But…", Cissie admitted._

He kneed the wolf in the chest then slammed his elbow against its snout before he could roll it off. The wounded wolf yelped and turned back into Beast Boy's human form.

"_I think he was lying.", Cissie stated._

Red X rolled up and stood up slowly… His costume was scuffed and his cape had at least one new tatter. He slowly rose and barely squared his shoulders as the Red Light District's red lights bathed over him…

"_I think…", Cissie tried to speak. "I think he's afraid to admit he's a good person deep down."_

Red X stood proud but tired while a few Titans crept out of the allies and gathered in front of him.

"_Why in the world would he do that?", Bonnie said, sarcastic as if the mere idea that Red X was decent was laughable._

"_Because-! Because, I…"_

People on the streets looked up in awe. Businessmen and tourists. Women and children wearing much less then they should.

"_I trust him I guess…"_

Red X slowly narrowed his eyes and clenched one fist.

"_Oh do you? Do you really, Cissie?!", Bonnie asked condescending._

And so they stood… All bathed in a wash of red light…

"_Yes…", Cissie said._

Red X glared. "It wasn't me."

"_With my life.", Cissie said firmly and proudly._

Red X charged.

-X-

Later.

Red X ran through an old battered building, but no less evacuated then your average hotel. "S'cuse me! Pardon! Didn't see a thing, miss! Get out of my way!!!"

Suddenly large metallic arms busted through the thin wall and grabbed up Red X. X was pulled through the wall, creating a bigger hole in the process, and suddenly X found himself being held by none other then Cyborg.

He no longer had any of the goo-x on his face. "Nice trick with the goo stuff back there. But I'm gonna have kick your butt now.", he said in a semi-cheerful manor as he tried to maneuver Red X into a sleeper hold.

Red X only fought the hold with one hand around his arm, which should have been Cyborg's first warning, as X's other hand reached into his belt. "Ack! You'll forgive me if I'm not too keen on that!" X reached up and slapped a disk against the side of Cyborg's head.

The disk began sending out sporadic electromagnet pulses, and Cyborg felt his entire body twitch and malfunction as a result.

X slipped out of his grip as the disk scrambled his circuits, knowing Cyborg's life-support was likely shielded or durable enough to withstand the sporadic pulses without any major failure.

Red X stood and watched the twitching and sparking Cyborg. "Go Go Gadget spaz-dance.", he commented before turning his back and running from the malfunctioning hunk of flesh and mechanics.

And no sooner did X take a step, and then did a swirl of yellow _and_ green energy burst through the wall and impact Red X.

"Agh!" Red X was thrown out the window by the blast, and before he could instinctively fire a grapnel, his thin young body impacted stomach first against the top of a street lamp hard with a sickening _crack_. X felt all the air and life fly out of his chest, and he fell limp onto the roof of a car below.

"Ya think we got 'em?", Bumblebee said as she emerged from the broken wall inside the building, holding both her electrified B-shaped stringers.

"Cyborg! Are you damanged?", Starfire said as she flew past Bumblebee and inspected the twitching Cyborg. "Must we… make a garbage disposal of you?", she said, oblivious to the phrase's meaning.

"I'll… erk! Be fine…", Cyborg grunted in between sparking, electrified twitches.

_Move… _Red X's head felt light, and clouded. His entire body throbbed like never before. His head hurt, but not nearly as much as it hurt to breath. _You don't have time to feel bad!_ He grunted loudly and forced his eyes open. "Agh….!", he slowly moaned as he clenched his fingers and contorted his legs in pain.

He forced himself to feel over his chest, and he felt broken Kevlar panels under the suit's outer-most layer of Nomex. He pushed gently against the broken panels, directly over the sources of his pain, and the pain intensified. "Agh!" He winced and gritted his teeth under the mask. _Ribs broken? Maybe… Gotta move… _

He tucked his arms next to his injured side and slowly began to roll off the car. _Be here soon… They'll be here soon._

Red X rolled off the car and cruelly hit the sidewalk. "Oof! Ugh… Someone put me out of my misery…!"

"The Red X! He must have been struck out the window." Starfire's voice somehow pierced the cloud of fog and pain that seemed to fill X's head.

X had barely even noticed the crowd of usual Amsterdam bystanders back away, yet still stare curiously from down and from across the street. He just knew that the Titans were seconds away. Desperation forced him to reach into his belt and slap an X against the pavement underneath the car.

Then he just moved. He didn't care if it was crawling or running, all he knew was he had to wince, swallow the burning pain in his chest, and somehow move away from the car and into the alleyway.

"There he is!", Bumblebee shouted from above as Red X held his chest.

X retreated further into the alley as Bumblebee flew down.

_BOOM!_

A ball of flame erupted from underneath the car and consumed the car's fuel tank, further allowing the blast to grow.

Bumblebee was thrown away by the concussion of the blast.

X clenched and leaned against a trashcan in the alley as the blast went off. He looked back at the flaming car. _AGH! _Then X threw his head up and clenched his teeth. _Can't move like that! Ribs…_ _Worry about it later… Everyone lived. Keep moving!_ Red X lowered his head in a hiss and kept limping off. _Keep moving!_

-X-

Cissie was holding herself lightly, arms crossed and hands holding the other shoulder. Her body language was a strange contortion of shame. But her face was a different story. She looked up at her mother with tired but unrelenting eyes, with heavy brows crooked into a glare and a firm upper lip. She was tired, vulnerable, and completely at mercy to the powers that be and to the thief who she knew nothing of. But… She was not backing down.

Her mother sat on the other end of the couch, tense. Her hands up and fingers clenched into claws, a gesture from her previous sentence that she had yet to relax. "How-", Bonnie sputtered, tripping on her own words. "How… How can you even- Grr… How can you trust him?!", she spat out after finally coming to grips with the mere thought of it. 

"I don't know. But I do.", Cissie said firmly again.

"I do to…", Kid Flash spoke up sheepishly.

Bonnie looked over to Kid Flash with a confused eyebrow raised high up.

"If Cissie trusts him… Then so do I." Kid Flash was leaning over, forearms resting on his knees. "He can't be that bad a guy, can he?"

"Well…" Cissie let go of herself and glanced off to the side. "I wouldn't trust him with my wallet maybe…" She looked back to Kid Flash and her mother. "But I trust him."

"If he's so trust-worthy, then why…" Bonnie paused. "Why say he was only helping you so he could collect on what you owed him?"

"I don't know…", Cissie said with a sigh. She pulled her legs up and hugged them to her chest, resting her chin on her knees.

"Maybe he likes everyone thinking he's a bad guy.", Kid Flash suggested.

"Maybe he's just insane…", Bonnie muttered under her breath.

"Maybe… He tried to play the hero once… and it didn't turn out so well.", Cissie offered aloud.

There was a silence.

Maybe that was it… Maybe not.

-X-

"Where is he?!", Speedy demanded as he ran up to Bumblebee, who was picking herself up off the ground.

"I'm fine…", Bumblebee said sarcastically unamused. "Thanks for asking."

"Any word?!", Robin asked as he swung down from the rooftops and landed on the red-light bathed streets with everyone else, his grapnel retracting after he landed.

"X went down that alley." Bumblebee pointed to the alley Red X had escaped down while rubbing her head. "I think he's hurt."

"Good.", Speedy muttered as he rushed over to the burning car and the alleyway's mouth, already cocking an arrow into his bow.

But before he could pass the blasted car, suddenly something swooped down from high up in the alley. Hanging on a thin wire, the Red X and his unmistakable tattered cape swung overhead.

"Got'cha!" Speedy spoke quickly as he pulled the arrow and let it go.

The arrow flew strait as always, and it's arrowhead blade cut strait through the thin wire.

"Speedy, no!", Robin cried as Red X feel strait down to earth below.

Bumblebee turned her face and closed her eyes with a cringe just before X smashed into the street with a… metallic crashing sound? Like that of banging pots and pans?

"Uh… Bee?", Speedy beckoned.

Bumblebee opened here eyes and looked. "What the…?

Red X's tattered cape lay on the ground, among a giant pile of garbage, a very dented trash can, and a trash can lid that slowly rolled away on it's side. The wire, nothing more then an old cloth line, was draped over the mess in a messy pattern after it too fell from the sky.

Robin glared at the mess. "That's not X."

"We were duped!", Speedy cried.

"Again?!", Bumblebee cried as she pulled at the buns on her head.

-X-

"Agh! Ugh… Side hasn't hurt this much since I tried out for a sponsorship from MTV." Red X limped down another alley, seriously wondering if his ribs were broken. He had sacrificed his tattered cape for use in a great decoy, it had allowed him just enough time to move just far enough away.

Stealth gone, his suit was too damaged to disappear. Kevlar panels in chest cracked, broken. Hurts to breath. Lots of shuriken left, but running low on special X-weapons. And his shoes were scuffed.

Red X exited from one alley way and stepped foot onto a dirty side street off a main highway in Amsterdam. If that's what you call these kinda roads in Amsterdam.

X's next move was to take out his grey communicator and call Arrowette, or maybe even Kid Flash, for back up. It was one of the only moves he had left at this rate, his ribs felt like burning hot fire against every nerve ending in his chest.

But then Red X noticed a dirty puddle on the ground abnormally drift and pull in one direction, as if fighting gravity and being pulled to another direction. Aqualad. Aqualad and his aquakensis, the ability to move water.

And here X was without his jell-o packs. Aqualad would be here soon.

Then a car horn beeped and X's head shot up. "…Wha now?"

An old white car pulled up, and a door to the back seat opened up.

Inside, Red X could see a scantly dressed woman with brunette hair in the back seat, screaming something in Dutch and desperately calling X into the car.

"Lady… I don't know what you're saying, but I like how you're saying it!" X ran over to the car as fast as he could with his chest on fire with each breath. He held his side and hunched low as he ran awkwardly.

"X! Hold it!", Aqualad yelled from down the alley. 

Red X didn't bother to reply; he just jumped into the backseat with the scantly dressed brunette, practically falling into her lap at the possibility of a safe haven.

The car revved and pulled away before X could even get his feet in the car and closes the door. But soon enough, Aqualad was riding on a wave of water he had summoned from some bad plumbing or an open sewage drain.

"Got you now, X!" Aqualad and his speeding wave of water lunged forward, and as water splashed against the car, Aqualad clung to the open door frame and peeked into the car to see…

Red X, held by the scantly dressed brunette, holding up his palm with a glowing crimson x in the center. "When in Amsterdam!", he said just before blasting right in Aqualad's face.

Aqualad was blasted away and landed on the dirty streets before the white car pulled onto the main highway, Red X pulling the rest of him self in and closing the door.

Red X took a deep breath and gritted his teeth as he leaned over the door after closing it. His ribs still burned, but it was hilarious to blast Aqualad like that. Too bad it hurt to laugh.

Eventually X heard more muttering in Dutch, all female voices. X turned around and got a good look at who exactly saved his butt.

The brunette next to him was scantly dressed in black leather and waved with a smile. A redhead was driving and looked like the firm and dominating kinda woman, but seemed to look back and smile at Red X when she took her eyes off the road. And the woman in the front passenger seat was a blonde in a tiny red dress.

The blonde in particular was turned around and paying the most attention to X, saying something in Dutch with a wide smile.

"Wait… I know you. You're the broad from earlier?"

Something else in Dutch.

"Yeah… It's you…" Red X laid back in his seat, fairly sure he was roughly safe for now.

The brunette placed a hand on his chest, and X winced. The blonde muttered something comforting in Dutch, then pointed back and forth between her and X.

"Yeah… I helped you, you helped me.", Red X said with a slight wince, then he forced himself to try and relax. "We're even, sweet cheeks." He nodded at her, and she smiled.

-X-

Later.

"So… You're really sure about this, are you?", Bonnie said, still in her seat on the couch, with her arms crossed and an eyebrow raised. "You're gonna trust Red X to help you out of this mess?"

"Yeah… I am. Besides, I got Scarecrow here to help out.", Cissie said with a smile and pointed a crooked thumb at Kid Flash, who in tern smiled and lean back in his seat.

Bonnie reached into her purse, withdrew another cigarette and lighter, and began to light up again. "Well… If you ask me…", she said while holding her hand up to the flame, cigarette already in her mouth, and she lit her cig. "I think it's a dumb idea. And I'd like to help, but since I didn't raise you to be an idiot, and because of Kid Flash's restraining order against me…" She glanced a glare over to Kid Flash. "…I'll trust you, and stay out of it."

Cissie was frankly surprised.

"Just at least give me updates! Alright?", Bonnie said while looking at her daughter with lit and smoking cigarette in her mouth. "I just want to know if you're alright.", she said promptly.

"Fair enough…", Cissie admitted.

There was an awkward silence as Bonnie shrugged a little, pushing an awkward comment to her mouth to speak. "I still love you, you know."

"I know.", Cissie said and looked off uncomfortably. "I love you too."

Kid Flash sniffled a little.

"What's with you?", Cissie asked.

"Just, ya know, kinda sweet. That's all.", Kid Flash confessed.

That's when the front door to the hotel opened suddenly. Bonnie and Cissie both jumped up in surprise, Kid Flash was already thinking faster then a computer and quickly got board at that speed and wanted to know who it was already.

It was Red X, standing in the open doorway. His cape was missing, and his costume was scuffed and torn. His shoulders hunched and an arm around his rib cage.

X paused only for a second, with a recurring twitch in his left eye, before he slammed the door closed behind him.

Everyone was quiet for a second.

"X…?", Cissie spoke up. "You look like he-"

"I'm going to bed now…!", Red X cut her off with an triumphant announcement. "If anyone needs me… I'll be up in a week." Then he leaned over to one side and began to swagger his way to one of the hotel room's bedrooms.

"Hold up, just a moment!", Bonnie said and rushed to him.

Red X snapped his head around, pointed a finger in Bennie's face, and screamed, "BED!!!" After a silent pause from everyone, X withdrew his hand and spoke softly. "I've… Had a very rough night, everyone…"

Then X turned again, and collapsed on the ground.

-X-

Later.

"Feeling better, now?", Cissie asked through the bedroom door.

"Yeah… Come on in.", Red X said from beyond the door.

Cissie opened the door gingerly, and her and Kid Flash peeked their heads in.

Red X sat on the foot of the bed. His belt was off but lay carefully next to him on one side. On the other side was a small mountain of bandages and medical supplies. Several of those bandages and swabs were red with drying blood.

"Mom left…", Cissie said as she slowly entered, Kid Flash meekly followed. "What happened, X?"

"Yeah, man." Kid Flash zipped from behind Cissie to the other side of the room. "What happened to you?!"

"It was an set-up…", Red X muttered as he snatched up his belt with a slight yank.

"A what?", Cissie asked taking another step.

"A set-up!", Red X yelled at Cissie. Then he hung his head low and buckled his belt around his waist. "It was a set-up.", he said, softer this time.

"What was?", she asked.

"This whole thing. Amsterdam. I went out to look for Le Blanc. He'd have to soften up a target before breaking in, or at least case the joint." X turned and gathered up his bloody bandages. "What every good thief does…"

Then X stood up, holding a wad of bloodied bandages. "But instead! Do I find Le Blanc? Nooooooo." He walked forward and passed Cissie. "Instead, I get attacked by _every_ Titan! East and West!" He ranted as he walked into the bathroom attached to that bedroom.

"Whoa, wait.", Kid Flash said as he zipped over next to Cissie and watched with her as X entered the bathroom. "Teen Titans and Titans East?"

"That's right, Zippo!", Red X said as he threw the pile of bandages into a small metal trashcan. "Every single one!", he knelt and punched the wad deeper into the trashcan. "They came here looking for you." Red X looked over to Cissie.

"Me?", Cissie said.

"That's right. So either Le Blanc or Ross Malverk tipped them off to us being here and this is a set-up, a trap…" Red X stood up and reached to the ceiling, grabbing the smoke detector. "OR me and your loud-mouthed mommy are gonna have words!" Red X yanked the smoke detector off the wall, and began to disassemble it in a less-then-gentle manor. "But to be fair…" He threw the major components to the detector in the trashcan as well. "It probably wasn't dear 'ol Mother."

Both Cissie and Kid Flash had gathered at the doorway.

"…What are you doing?", Kid Flash asked after a pause and pointed at the metal trashcan.

"Destroying evidence.", Red X replied matter-of-factly as he withdrew a small laser torch from his utility belt, and used it to light fire to the bandages in the trash can. Then he deactivated and put away the torch before setting the flaming trashcan in the bathtub.

Cissie stared as the growing flames that perked out of the trashcan's rim, knowing the flames were fed by Red X's very own blood, and sweat…and maybe tears. His very blood, spilt by people who meant to protect her. Sweat that had trickled down his body as he ran for his life and his freedom. How many yelps of agony as he examined and closed whatever wounds they had given him?

So much of Red X's very essence, the only proof Cissie had ever seen that Red X truly was human, truly alive, an actual person in the suit… Burning away into nothingness, erased from existence forever. Up in smoke.

Red X stood outside of the bathtub, silently looming and standing over the burning trashcan. And suddenly Cissie realized how very fragile and human he was underneath that suit.

And if even Red X could bleed…

"We need to leave Amsterdam.", she said.

He'd saved her life so many times she lost count. He was _always_ one step ahead of her. She could only hope to catch him someday.

She was just a rookie, and he was a professional. A _master_ thief.

And yet…

He could bleed.

And if Red X could bleed… What could happen to her?

Cissie snapped back up to attention, finished with her inner meditations, and saw both Kid Flash and Red X staring at her. She mentally slapped her own face and stared more resolved at X. "They'll be looking all over for us. Right, X?"

X nodded. "Got that right. Gather your things, get rid of what you can't, and get ready to get out quietly."

Red X reached over to the bathtub faucet, and poured cold water into the burning flame. The flame extinguished in a burst of steam and smoke. Then he turned off the water, left the trashcan there to smolder, and scooted Kid Flash and Cissie aside so he could leave the bathroom.

"And help me wipe everything down to get rid of fingerprints…", X said with a sigh of the tedious job.

Cissie watched X carefully as he passed by her.

And she hoped none of them, not her or Red X or Kid Flash, would have to bleed anymore before this was over.

………………………………………………………………………………...

Author's Note: First off, let me apologize for how long it took me to update this. I got sidetracked and sucked dry by real life, then distracted by other creative ideas. I'm hoping now I can get my rear in gear and get back on track with _Twice A Thief_. It's now officially only a _third _of the way complete.

I hope you liked the little montage thing I tried, with Cissie's and co's dialogue posted over Red X's and co's actions. Little trick I picked up from Cinema that I thought I'd give it a try here. I also put a lot of symbolism into this chapter.

Almostinnocent: What are you? A teacher? Ha ha. No hard feelings actually. I admit I can be sorta dyslexic with the way I write, switching letters and, sometimes, entire words. Either Microsoft Word or I usually catch it, but sometimes stuff slips through.

Riana1: A lot of this globetrotting was to meet your request. And yes, in the next chapter, both Cissie _and_ Red X will wear a beret.

KF fan: One of my side goals of this story was to be a sorta prologue to _Lightspeed_ for Kid Flash. "I work alone these days. You got a nice place. Very…secret-lair." I wanted to show Kid Flash discovering the additional abilities of his powers. And he's totally gonna kick some major $$ with them at the end of the story. Kid Flash fans, stay tuned!

And to all you car lovers out there… You're in for a real treat next chapter, and I'm _really_ excited about it. I'll give you a hint: What has four-wheel drive, 16 cylinders, 20-inch wheels, and a bulletproof gearbox?

Answer: Red X's new ride…


End file.
